Ashfaque Ahmed Memon, Anjum Shahid, Masood Hussain Rao, Muhammad Ayaz Mustufa.
Pattern of diseases, reason of visiting & waiting time at various stages of tertiary hospital.
Isra Med J Jan ;5(3):200-3.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the frequency of diseases in children, reasons of visiting out patients department of tertiary care children, hospital and to evaluate the waiting time of patients at different stages of treatment. STUDY DESIGN: Descriptive observational study. PLACE AND DURATION: National Institute of Child Health, Karachi from October 2007 to July 2008. METHODOLOGY: Patients up to 13 years of age attending OPD were recruited in to study using simple random sampling procedure. Sample size was 400. RESULTS: Children were selected from three OPDs of NICH, Karachi. Majority of patient were below 5 years of age [69.7% (n=279)]. Mean age was 3.53years + 3.3 with range 155 months (1-156). The main diseases in medical OPD were respiratory problem 19.43 % (n=34), followed by renal problems 17.7% (n=31), and GIT problem 13.7% (n=24). In surgical OPD, trauma & fracture 23.2% (n=36), hernia 17.42 % (n=27), and urology 15.5 % (n=24) were important problems in children. Respiratory distress 31.43% (n=22), sepsis 18.61% (n=13), NNJ+ 17.1% (n=12), and constipation 11.43% (n=8), were the common disorders in infants attending well baby clinic. Mean number of visits per patient was 2.5 + 1.9 (range 1-20). CONCLUSION: Most frequent disorders in medical OPD were respiratory problem, trauma & fracture in surgical OPD, and respiratory distress, sepsis and neonatal jaundice at well baby clinic. Availability of free of cost facilities was the main reason for attending the OPD.

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