Rudolf M C, Tomanovich O, Greenberg J, Friend L, Alario A J
Department of Pediatrics, Rhode Island Hospital, Brown University, Providence 02903.
J Dev Behav Pediatr. 1992 Aug;13(4):261-5.
Studies of health behavior in adults show that women report more morbidity and greater health service utilization than do men, despite lower mortality rates. Explanations involve social and biological gender differences in adult life. Infirmary utilization at a residential summer camp where parental influence is minimized was studied to determine whether these gender differences occur in the pediatric age group. Three hundred ninety-eight campers, 8 to 18 years old were studied. Girls were observed to make greater use of the infirmary than boys (p less than .01) and were especially likely to present with minor trauma, both musculoskeletal (p less than .05) and skin (p less than .01). No correlation was found between age and frequency of visits. Obvious morbidity was similar for boys and girls, in that no gender difference was observed in those visiting for definite medical indications alone or in those admitted. However, a difference was evident in those visiting for minor and trivial problems, particularly in those making three or more visits for minor and trivial problems (p less than .01). Although obvious morbidity was no different in campers, girls used the infirmary more than boys in a manner similar to that reported for adult health behavior. This suggests that gender differences occur earlier than suspected and are not simply related to adult social roles.
针对成年人健康行为的研究表明，尽管女性死亡率较低，但她们报告的发病率更高，医疗服务利用率也高于男性。对此的解释涉及成年生活中的社会和生物学性别差异。为了确定这些性别差异是否出现在儿童年龄组中，研究了一个家长影响力最小化的寄宿夏令营的医务室利用率。研究对象为398名8至18岁的营员。观察发现，女孩比男孩更多地使用医务室（p小于0.01），并且尤其容易出现轻微创伤，包括肌肉骨骼创伤（p小于0.05）和皮肤创伤（p小于0.01）。未发现年龄与就诊频率之间存在相关性。男孩和女孩的明显发病率相似，即仅因明确医疗指征就诊的人群或住院人群中未观察到性别差异。然而，在因轻微和琐碎问题就诊的人群中存在明显差异，尤其是在因轻微和琐碎问题就诊三次或更多次的人群中（p小于0.01）。尽管营员中的明显发病率没有差异，但女孩使用医务室的频率高于男孩，这与针对成年人健康行为所报告的情况类似。这表明性别差异比预期出现得更早，并且不仅仅与成人社会角色有关。
