Morbidity in early Childhood, Sex Differences, Birth Order and Social Class

Abstract

Study objective—The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between morbidity in early childhood and gender, birth order, and social class.

Design—The study used data collected in the Nijmegen Continuous Morbidity Registration. All presented morbidity and a number of personal data were available. Setting—The survey population was regional; four general practices in the east of The Netherlands.

Participants—The study population included all children born in the four practices from 1971 to 1984. They were followed up till the age of five (1537 children).

Measurements and main results—Morbidity of children in the first five years was allocated to three degrees of seriousness and to 14 diagnosis groups. The morbidity of all children was analysed for boys and girls, first-born, second-born, and later-born children, and low, middle, and high social class. Boys presented more morbidity than girls; in particular, nervous disorders, lower respiratory tract infections, and accidents. First-born children presented more morbidity than later-born children; in particular, non-serious diseases, nervous disorders, and colds. Lower social class children presented more moderately serious and non-serious morbidity, colds, lower respiratory tract infections, and skin diseases. Logistic regression analysis showed that high social class, being the first-born child, and male gender were the most important factors related to presented morbidity in general practice.

Conclusions—High social class, low social class, gender, and being the first-born child were, in this sequence, related to morbidity in early childhood presented to the general practitioner in this study population.

Key Words:

• morbidity
• childhood
• gender
• birth order
• social class