Abstract
This study aimed to identify paediatric terminology used in the Australian health and health-education context, propose a standardized framework for Australian use, and compare it with a US-based framework. Australian health and health-education websites were systematically searched using a novel hierarchical domain-specific search strategy to identify grey literature containing paediatric terminology. Webpages published from 2009 to February 2014, with a '.gov.au' or '.edu.au' domain and no advertising, were included. Paediatric terms were analysed with power-law distributions. Age definitions were grouped using a chi-squared test automatic interaction detection analysis (p<0.05). In total, 34 paediatric terms and 197 unique age definitions were identified in 613 webpages. Terms displayed a language distribution, although definitions had semantic and lexical ambiguity. Age definitions were divided into four statistically different groups (F=245.3, p<0.001). Four paediatric terms with distinct age definitions were proposed based on Australian data: 'infant: 0 to <1year', 'early childhood: 1year to <5years', 'child: 5years to <13years', and 'young person: 13years to <22years'. These recommendations were broader than the US-based comparison. This is a starting point for standardizing Australian paediatric terminology, and a method for exploring paediatric terminology in other countries.
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