[The demand for primary pediatric care].

OBJECTIVE

To determine the pediatric demands in a primary health care center in order to better plan the work, as well as to up-date the health care and continuing education programs.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

The total number of pediatric consultations to a health care center during two years were studied.

RESULTS

A total number of 3,848 children, with a maximum age of 13 years, consulted this office a total of 48,936 times. The annual frequency index increases in accordance with a decrease in age, with an average of 6.2 consultations per child per year. The assistencial pressure was 24.15 consultations/ pediatrician/day in 1993 and 27.33 consultations/pediatrician/day in 1994. Consultations by children older than 7 years of age comprised 24.4% of the total. As for the distribution of these consultations, 74.19% were with a previous appointment, 18.06% without appointment, 7.16% due to health programs and 0.58% due to consultations done at home. For every 100 visits, 1.34 complementary tests, 1.8 x-rays and 6.5 referrals were done. Using Wonca's classifications, 42.23% belonged to group VIII, the next greatest number to group XVIII, followed by I, with the last being XVI. The most frequent reasons for consultations were: SRI in 24.3% of the cases, followed by the breast-feeding program, normality, tonsillitis and otitis. In addition, acute respiratory tract infection and acute childhood diarrhoea had weekly distributions throughout these two years.

CONCLUSIONS

We comment on the necessity of adapting the continued education programs and the prevention and health promotion plans so that they better address the pathologies that are most frequently found in primary care.