I bilanci di salute trent'anni dopo

Abstract

The well-baby visit represented the transition from a “demand” medicine to a “supplied” medicine to identify early risk factors and problems in the psycho-physical development of the child. Therefore, a significant number of screenings were introduced at the filter ages and prevention and health education interventions to families became part of the health balance. This work aims to evaluate the efficacy of this instrument, which was introduced about 30 years ago. Despite the fact that the health balance has become a significant part of the activity of the primary care paediatricians, and in face of the quantity of economic resources invested by the NHS, even in the traditionally virtuous Italian regions, they have produced results that are not entirely satisfactory. In fact, the coverage of the population served was not satisfactory and decreased with increasing age. However, as it is well known, the missing ones are precisely the ones who need most attention. The least encouraging data was the collection and analysis of data, which was not uniform in the various regions, sometimes completely absent, betraying one of the priority purposes of the health-childhood project, i.e. community diagnostics. The awareness that only a commitment to real collaboration between operators in the area and public epidemiologists will be able to transform the health balance from a precious individual clinical tool for managing the child into a real tool to improve the health of the community, as virtuous regions have tried to demonstrate.