Social Factors and Life Events as Predictors for Children's Health

Abstract

During a period of one year information concerning social background, life events and diseases of children (aged 1—14) admitted to a paediatric department had been obtained. One year after this index hospitalization, information concerning the children's present state of health was obtained. Forty (13%) had been readmitted to hospital during the follow-up year, and the parents of 72 children (23%) reported that their child's present state of health was poor. A multivariate predictor analysis was performed. The associations discovered suggest 1) that the selected social or psycho-social factors do not appear to be of considerable importance for prediction of readmission to hospital, 2) that “poor health” in the children has a very complex prediction pattern, partly due to disease variables, partly due to indices of unfavourable family background.