RESEARCH Population-Based Study of Acute Respiratory Infections in

• Main Author: Children Greenland
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Ari; Canada; Greenland; Sisimiut; eskimo*; greenlandic; inuit
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.392.3843; http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/8/6/pdfs/01-0321.pdf

Acute respiratory infections (ARI) are frequent in Inuit children, in terms of incidence and severity. A cohort of 294 children <2 years of age was formed in Sisimiut, a community on the west coast of Greenland, and followed from 1996 to 1998. Data on ARI were collected during weekly visits at home and child-care centers; visits to the community health center were also recorded. The cohort had respiratory symptoms on 41.6 % and fever on 4.9 % of surveyed days. The incidence of upper and lower respiratory tract infections was 1.6 episodes and 0.9 episodes per 100 days at risk, respectively. Up to 65 % of the episodes of ARI caused activity restriction; 40 % led to contact with the health center. Compared with studies from other parts of the world, the incidence of ARI appears to be high in Inuit children. I n children of the Inuit, the aboriginal Eskimo population of the Arctic, acute respiratory infections (ARI) are frequent, measured in terms of incidence and severity. Infant death and disease from ARI are higher than in Denmark, United States, and Canada (1–3); many Inuit children have severe lower respiratory tract infections (LRI) early in life (4). Childhood otitis media, with an occurrence rate among the highest in the world (5–7), is characterized by early age at onset and a high chronicity (6–9). The causes of the high rates of otitis media are largely unknown, but nasopharyngeal carriage of potentially pathogenic bacteria and viruses in Greenlandic children in combination with frequent upper respiratory tract infections (URI) may be important (10). To determine the incidence of ARI on the basis of population, we established a cohort of children <2 years of age in Sisimiut, a community on the west coast of Greenland. The goals of this study were to determine the epidemiology of acute respiratory tract infections in children on a prospective and longitudinal basis and to identify risk factors for such disease.