IV. Follow-up Survey

Abstract

PLAN OF SURVEY A follow-up survey was done of all babies born between October, 1953, and August, 1954, in the Greater Vancouver Metropolitan Health Area. Public health nurses of the Metropolitan Health Department and the Victorian Order of Nurses were sent into the home sometime before the infant reached the age of 6 weeks. They recorded the mother's report of all skin lesions and infections in the baby or members of the family. The questionnaire, which was completed by the nurse, is provided as an Appendix. RESULTS Table XX shows the number of visits to infants born in the Greater Vancouver hospitals. The figures of the final row show the incidence of reported "disease" in infants. Out of 9,346 mothers 2,790 (29.8%) reported some "disease" which had affected their baby in the first 6 weeks of life. Table XXI gives an analysis of the data derived from the survey that pertains to "disease" in the infant and family. We were specially interested in the number of skin infections developing in the infants at home. This is shown in Table XXII. It had been suggested that the effect of hexachlorophene on the incidence of skin infection was only temporary, and that a rebound increase in infection might occur after the babies' discharge from hospital. At the time of the survey only hospital A [See Table XX and XXI in Source PDF] [See Table XXII in Source PDF] (Vancouver General Hospital) was using hexachlorophene on the skin of the newborn. It will be seen in Table XXII that the reported rate of skin infections developing in the infants at home after discharge from this hospital compared favourably with the majority of other hospitals.