Technology-dependency among patients discharged from a children's hospital: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: Advances in medical technology may be increasing the population of children who are technology-dependent (TD). We assessed the proportion of children discharged from a children's hospital who are judged to be TD, and determined the most common devices and number of prescription medications at the time of discharge.

Methods: Chart review of 100 randomly selected patients from all services discharged from a children's hospital during the year 2000.

Prevalence of asthma and chronic respiratory symptoms among Alaska Native children.

Study Objectives: To quantify the prevalence and impact of chronic respiratory symptoms among predominantly Alaska Native (AN)/American Indian (AI) middle school students.

Design: School-based prevalence assessment using the International Study of Asthma and Allergy in Children survey, with supplemental video material and added questions about productive cough, exposure to tobacco smoke, and the functional impact of symptoms.

Setting: The Yukon-Kuskokwim delta region of western Alaska.

Early radiographic and clinical features associated with bronchiectasis in children.

Bronchiectasis among children living in developing regions is associated with respiratory infections during early childhood, but specific risk factors that precede childhood bronchiectasis are not fully characterized. We hypothesized that severe respiratory syncytial viral (RSV) infection in infancy would increase the risk of bronchiectasis among Alaska Native children in rural Alaska. This was a follow-up cohort study of a 1993-1996 case-control study of RSV-hospitalized case patients and their controls.

Sequelae of severe respiratory syncytial virus infection in infancy and early childhood among Alaska Native children.

Objective: In 1993-1996, we conducted a nested case-control study to determine risk factors for hospitalization with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection among Alaska Native infants and young children. In the current study, we returned to former RSV case-patients and their control subjects during 1999-2001 to determine whether children who are hospitalized with RSV at <2 years of age are more likely to develop chronic respiratory conditions.

Methods: For each former RSV case-patient and control subject from remote villages in southwest Alaska, we reviewed medical records, interviewed parents, performed physical examinations and spirometry, collected sera, and analyzed chest radiographs.