Ethnic and family factors of some common diseases in early childhood.

The primary purpose of the present study was to examine the comparative incidence of some common diseases with unknown genetic components (e.g. newborn jaundice, urinary and respiratory tract infections) in infants of Israeli families of mixed and non-mixed ethnic origin. We also studied possible relationships between risk of these diseases and a number of anthropometric and demographic factors. Only the group of infants whose parents originated from North Africa and Middle East showed statistically significant differences: namely an increased level of total morbidity, of various comparisons of specific disease frequencies, and in total illness frequency, between infants from "mixed" and "non-mixed" families. In general, however, there was a positive correlation between frequency of healthy infants in "mixed" group and genetic distance between parents. Our findings also indicated a significant association between weight and head circumference of newborn infants respectively, and their illnesses, especially jaundice.