Epidemiological features of diseases of the digestive system in children and adolescents in Ukraine

Abstract

Background. The issues of early diagnosis, treatment and prevention of digestive diseases in children in recent years have gone beyond pediatrics and represent a complex and large medical and social problem. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to analyse the prevalence and incidence of diseases of the digestive system among children of Ukraine for the last 4 years (2013–2016). Materials and methods. The analysis was carried out according to official reporting data, which are submitted to the Medical Statistics Center of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine in 25 regions. Results. Despite the fact that the change in the dynamic range of prevalence and incidence of diseases of the digestive organs tends to decrease, gastroenterological pathology ranks second in the structure of prevalence and 4th — in the structure of morbidity by the class of diseases among children and adolescents. Gender distribution revealed the prevalence of girls among patients with diseases of the digestive system. Conclusions. Regional aspects of the prevalence and incidence of gastroenterological diseases in children and adolescents have been established: a high prevalence was registered in Kyiv, Poltava, Chernihiv and Rivne regions, and the lowest — in Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Odesa regions; high morbidity rates were observed in Ivano-Frankivsk, Rivne and Chernivtsi, and the lowest — in Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, Donetsk and Kherson regions.

Keywords

• diseases of the digestive system
• children
• adolescents
• prevalence
• epidemiology