Adolescent health problems--can paediatricians in the RSA cope?

Paediatricians are probably the physicians best able to care for adolescents. However, in the RSA they tend to set the upper age limit of their patients at the early teens. This study compared the disease profile of paediatric medical admissions with that of adolescent medical admissions in a Third-World situation in order to determine whether the training programme for local specialist paediatricians needed to be widened to ensure successful management of the older age group. In addition, the number of adolescent and paediatric medical admissions were compared to establish whether adolescent admissions formed a large enough group to justify changes in the specialist training curriculum. It was found that adolescents were admitted to medical wards in significant numbers. Their disease profile differed markedly from that of patients admitted to the paediatric wards. It was evident that additions to the curriculum would be necessary before paediatricians in the RSA could manage adolescents with expertise and confidence.