A Study on the Recent Trend of Chief Complaint of Korean Pediatric and Adolescent Outpatients

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate about chief complaints of Korean pediatrics and adolescent outpatients in the ○○ university hospital for their recent trend. MethodsThe study was composed of 4,677 new patients aged between 1 month and 20 years who had been visited pediatrics in ○○ university hospital from 2012 January to 2015 December. Results1. Among those patients, majority was early childhood as 51.4%, followed by early childhood, late childhood, infancy, and adolescence. 2. Chief complaints in this population have been recorded in the fall the most as 29.6%, but the distribution was inconsistent. 3. To categorize, digestive-related chief complaints were the highest as 30.6%, followed by respiratory, supplemental use, growth, psychiatrics. Respiratory-related chief complaints increased dramatically in the fall. 4. In infancy and early childhood, digestive/respiratory complaints were common, whereas, growth complaints were common in late childhood and adolescence. 5. Digestive/respiratory complaints have been over 50% out of all chief complaints annually. Psychiatric and growth-related complaints have been trending up, whereas, supplemental/skin complaints have decreased every year. 6. Specifically, anorexia were the most common in digestive complaints, and rhinitis/sinusitis were top among respiratory complaints. Precocious puberty and developmental disability increased every year. ConclusionsThe most common chief complaints were digestive and respiratory-related, and precocious puberty and growth issues have been trending up lately. Based on this result, more studies that targets precocious puberty and growth problems are needed.

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