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

Abstract

Aim: Assessment 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 Türkiye.

Methods: The research is a cross-sectional study conducted using the microdataset of the "Türkiye 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.

Results: In 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.

Conclusion: It was determined that diarrhea and upper respiratory tract infections occur in approximately one out of every three children in the 0-6 age group.