Technical Report - Donegal Traveller's Project

Health Survey FindingsSection B1: Child Health (All Children)General SummaryInformation was collected on 1,380 children in ROI: 521 5-year-olds, 399 9-year-old and 460 14-yearolds.In NI, a total of 183 child health interviews were conducted with the adult respondents, with 61responses for 5-year-olds, 65 for 9-year-old and 57 for 14-year-olds.The majority (64.6% ROI and 55.7% NI) of both male and female children were reported as weighingbetween 3 and 4 kg at birth. Older children in a family tended to have been relatively lighter at birththan the subsequent offspring. Most children (56.9% ROI and 65.9% NI) were born at full term (i.e.between 37 and 41 weeks of gestation), a pattern similar according to age and sex in both jurisdictions.The breastfeeding rate for children overall was 5.6% in ROI and 7.1% in NI.In ROI and NI, 90.3% and 97.3% of children respectively were reported as having no ongoing healthproblem. For those children who had a health problem, the number one reported condition wasasthma, which accounted for 71.9% of reports of chronic conditions in childhood in ROI. There weremuch lower rates reported for other conditions, including inborn errors of metabolism. Patterns weresimilar for both male and female children, with asthma the most frequently reported adverse chronichealth condition in each age group. Chest infection was the most commonly cited recent acutecondition. Around a quarter of children (22.9% ROI and 26.0% NI) were reported to have ever had anaccident, boys more frequently than girls in ROI but not in NI and older children more frequently thanyounger ones. The most frequently reported type of injury in both ROI and NI was a fall.41% of Traveller children in ROI and 47.6% in NI had visited a hospital Accident and EmergencyDepartment (A & E) in the previous 12 months, and 36.5% of children in ROI and 43.9% in NI had doneso on 1 to 3 occasions. Again the gender and age group variation was small.10% of children in ROI and 7.8% in NI had stayed at least 1 night in hospital in the last year, withlittle variability according to age group or sex. The most frequent length of stay was 1 to 3 nights, asindicated by 66.7% of those hospitalised. Younger children had the shortest length of stay. The mostfrequent indications for admission were infectious conditions, including fever or viral conditions,asthma and other non-surgical conditions.Both in ROI (58.4%) and in NI (58.5%), a majority of mothers reported adding regular salt to theirchild’s food while cooking. In ROI 26.8% and in NI 43.7% reported that their children ate five or greaterportions of fruit and vegetables daily.193