Assessment of the Communicable Disease Status of Children in Türkiye: A Community-Based Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

AimAssessment of children's communicable disease status is effective in preventing child morbidity. This study aims to evaluate the infectious disease status of children aged 0-14 in T & uuml;rkiye.MethodsThe research is a cross-sectional study conducted using the microdataset of the T & uuml;rkiye Health Survey 2022 obtained from the Turkish Statistical Institute. Seven thousand nineteen individuals aged 0-14 were included in the analysis. Data on communicable diseases of children aged 0-14 years in the 6-month period before the survey date was obtained by asking the household head.ResultsIn our research, the data of 7019 individuals aged 0-14 was evaluated. It was determined that 2.2% of children had a vaccine-preventable infectious disease in the last 6 months. It was observed that the frequency of upper respiratory tract infection, lower respiratory tract infection, urinary tract infection, and diarrhea in children was higher in the 0-6 age group than in the 7-14 age group. Urinary tract infections were more common in girls, whereas respiratory tract infections, communicable diseases, and diarrhea were more common in boys.ConclusionIt was determined that diarrhea and upper respiratory tract infections occur in approximately one out of every three children in the 0-6 age group.