Melo Maria Clotildes N de, Taddei José Augusto de A C, Diniz-Santos Daniel R, May Daniel Simões, Carneiro Nadya B, Silva Luciana R
Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Professor Hosannah Oliveira Pediatric Center, School of Medicine, Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, BA, Brazil.
Braz J Infect Dis. 2007 Dec;11(6):571-9. doi: 10.1590/s1413-86702007000600009.
Several methodological issues may have an impact on the incidence rates of childhood acute diarrhea reported by community-based studies. This study was performed to assess the impact of parental recall ability and definition of diarrhea on the estimate of incidence of acute diarrhea. Eighty-four children younger than 40 months were randomly selected and visited every other day for four weeks and the occurrence of diarrhea was registered. On the last day of the study, another visit was performed and the informants were inquired about the occurrence of diarrhea during the previous four weeks. Data gathered during the four weeks were compared to those obtained on the last visit. Additionally, the informants' definition of diarrhea was investigated and compared to the one adopted by this study. During the observation period, 33 children suffered diarrhea, but only 10 (30.3%) informants reported the occurrence of diarrhea. Although 42.4% of those informants reported that their children had been ill over that period, they did not report diarrhea. Further, 60.6% children who had diarrhea suffered at least one episode in the two weeks prior to the visitation. The same definition of diarrhea used in this study was adopted by 52.1% of the informants inquired. Parental recall is an unreliable method to estimate the incidence of diarrhea and studies with a short interval between the visits should be necessary to correctly evaluate this important health problem. Moreover, assessing the informants' own definition of diarrhea is a significant contribution to the interpretation of the results.
几个方法学问题可能会对社区研究报告的儿童急性腹泻发病率产生影响。本研究旨在评估家长回忆能力和腹泻定义对急性腹泻发病率估计的影响。随机选取84名40个月以下儿童，每隔一天访视四周，并记录腹泻的发生情况。在研究的最后一天，再次进行访视，询问被调查者前四周腹泻的发生情况。将四周期间收集的数据与最后一次访视获得的数据进行比较。此外，调查被调查者对腹泻的定义，并与本研究采用的定义进行比较。在观察期内，33名儿童患腹泻，但只有10名（30.3%）被调查者报告了腹泻的发生。尽管42.4%的被调查者报告他们的孩子在那段时间生病，但他们没有报告腹泻。此外，60.6%腹泻儿童在访视前两周至少有一次发病。52.1%被询问的被调查者采用了本研究中使用的相同腹泻定义。家长回忆是估计腹泻发病率的不可靠方法，有必要进行访视间隔短的研究来正确评估这个重要的健康问题。此外，评估被调查者自己对腹泻的定义对结果的解释有重要贡献。
