Child morbidity demonstrated in a general hospital.

A fair picture of adult morbidity can be obtained from sickness-absenteeism rates in various industries, but no such information is available for children. Several analyses have been made of the admissions to children's hospitals (Baber, 1939; Smellie, 1949), and Tisdall, Brown, and Kelly (1930) studied the age of onset, sex distribution, and seasonal incidence of 25 diseases from admissions to the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, and from the records of the Toronto Department of Public Health. In America, Collins (1948) studied the extent of illness in the first year of life by canvassing. Children admitted to a general hospital form a better sample of sick children in the general population than those admitted to children's hospitals. Hackney Hospital is a general hospital of 700 beds, containing acute medical, surgical, obstetric, gynaecological, and chronic wards. There is in addition an infants' ward of 30 cots. During the period under review, August 1, 1947, to July 31, 1949, there were 3,159 admissions of children of 15 years and under, amounting to one-sixth of the total admissions. Infants born in the hospital are not included in this series unless they were subsequently readmitted.