March 2, 20108:08 am
posted by Aric Thorpe, MHR
Kids increasingly have chronic health problems
According to a study published in the February 17 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, childhood chronic conditions have increased substantially over the last decade. There were three cohorts of children followed between the years 1988 to 2006; 27.8% were found to have a chronic condition in the earliest cohort and 51.5% in the latest cohort. The conditions reported included physical impairments, behavioral problems, obesity, asthma, as well as learning problems. The researchers found that 9.3% of the population studied had a chronic condition that resolved itself within six years. According to Jeanne Van Cleave, MD, of MassGeneral Hospital for Children in Boston, “We didn’t think that we would find that because of our notion of chronic conditions being somewhat more permanent than what we saw in the study.” Overall, the researchers concluded that it is of great importance for children to have ongoing visits with their primary care physician. Click here to read an article from Baltimore Sun that discusses this study more.
