Thai Infant Health Situation: Essential Medical Information for Family Centered Care
Kusuma Chusilp MD*, Pensri Kosuwon MD*, Chanchai Panthongwiriyakul MD*, Kaewjai Thepsuthammarat PhD**, Supakorn Wangsai BA***, Sumitr Sutra MD*
Affiliation : * Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand ** Department of Biostatistics and Demography, Faculty of Public Health, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand *** Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand
Background : The family-centered care requires reliable information on morbidity, mortality and related health problems to
educate the responsible families.
Objective : To explore diseases and deaths of infants aged 29 days-12 months under the 2010 Universal Health Insurance in
Thailand.
Material and Method: As per Sutra et al in ‘Health situation analysis of Thai population 2010. The data included in the
analysis were numbers and percents of primary diagnosis of each visit in the out patient department (OPD), admitted cases
and infant death. Other health related issues were also retrieved from the existing sources of health information at country
level.
Results : The infants aged 29 days-12 month had 9,721,266 OPD visits including factors influencing health (69.6%),
respiratory infections (16.3%), Intestinal infection (2.4%) and other diseases (11.7%). The admitted cases commonly had
respiratory infections (47.5%), intestinal infections (23.4%), other infections (4.8%) and congenital malformation (2.8%).
The three most common causes of hospital deaths were perinatal conditions (25.2%), congenital malformation (21.4%) and
respiratory infection (18.5%). There were also neonatal problems of low birth weight and iodine deficiency.
Conclusion : The infectious diseases and perinatal health problems were the main issues for family education in the family
centered care to reduce the burden of diseases and infant death.
Keywords : Infant morbidity, Infant mortality, Family centered care
