Observation of Social Back Ground and Disease Patterns of Children in an Institute for Foreign Adoption

Choi, Sang Wook; Cho, Kang Hyun; Ahn, Don Hee; Sohn, Keun Chan

Abstract

A study was made to see the family back ground abandonment of mother's right, clinical and laboratory examination(urinalysis, blood examination, tuberculous skin test, VDRL, PKU screening test and chest X-ray) on 1,793 infants and children in an institure for foreign adoption. The results were as follows: 1) Gilrs were much more predominant than boys with male to female ratio of 1 : 2.3. 2) Most of them were Korean and only ten were mixed blood, Five were Korean-white, five were Korean-negro. 3) Most of them were under one year of age(70%). 4) Mid-wife delivery was the most common birth place among known ones. 5) Most of deliveries were normal full term delivery(46.9%). 6) There was no difference in monthly distribution. Duration of admission was 2~3 months usually. 7) concerning the family background, most of them were unknown, 432 of them(24.8%) were from unmarried mother, 397 from married mother, and founding, parents dead or left home, divorced and unmarried father in order of decreasing frequency. 8) Age of mothers, between 21~25 years was most frequent. Most of unmarried mothers were between 20~22 years of age. 9) In order of birth, most of them were between 3~5th children. 10) Disease pattern; Upper respiratory tract disease was the most common, and diarrhea was the next. Skin and mucous membrane disease were frequently seen. There were 12 cases of tuberculosis and 18 cases of congenital syphilis. There developed 15 cases of pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. 11) On routine laboratory examination, there noted 85 cases of positive TB sin test, 18 cases of positive VDRL reaction. No positive case in PKU screening test.