Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Hospitalizations for infectious diseases in Jewish and Bedouin children in southern Israel

  • Published:
European Journal of Epidemiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Two different population groups reside in the Negev region of southern Israel and have equal, and free from financial barrier, access to tertiary care at a single regional hospital. The Jewish population has a largely urban and industrialized lifestyle, while the Moslem Bedouins are in transition from their traditional nomadic life to settlement. To examine the differences in morbidity patterns reflected in hospitalizations, the computerized hospitalization records of children <15 years of age, for 1989–1991 were used (n = 15,947). Rates of hospitalizations for infectious diseases were significantly higher for Bedouins in comparison to Jews (250 and 121/10,000 child years, respectively, odds ratio (OR): 2.1, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.0–2.2, p < 0.001). Rates of hospitalization per 10,000 child years in Bedouins and Jews for diarrhea were 114 and 32 (OR: 3.7, 95% CI: 3.3–4.0, p < 0.001), respectively, and for pneumonia 55 and 19 (OR: 2.9, 95% CI: 2.6–3.3, p < 0.001), respectively. In infants the differences were even more pronounced, especially for diarrheal diseases. In Bedouin children infectious diseases were associated with longer hospital stay, more pediatric Intensive Care hospitalizations (OR: 2.7, 95% CI: 1.7–4.5, p < 0.001), and higher in-hospital mortality (OR: 5.7, 95% CI: 2.8–12.2, p < 0.001). Thus, Bedouin children are at higher risks of hospitalizations for infectious diseases in early childhood, as compared to Jewish children. This may reflect the differences in lifestyle, environmental and social conditions of the two populations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. World Health Organization. Division of Epidemiological Surveillance and Health Situation and Trend Assessment. Global estimates for health situation assessment and projections, 1990. Geneva: World Health Organization.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Claeson M, Merson MH. Global progress in the control of diarrheal diseases. Pediatr Infect Dis J 1990; 9: 345–355.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Glass RI, Lew JF, Gangarosa RE, et al. Estimates of morbidity and mortality rates for diarrheal diseases in American children. J Pediatr 1991; 118: S27–S33.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Hwang B. Frequency of major pediatric illnesses hospitalized in Taiwan. Acta Paediatr Sin 1994; 35: 12–18.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Bar-Zvi S. Characteristics of the Bedouin's life in the Negev – prior to their sedenterization. (Hebrew) In: Gradus Y, Shmuelli A (eds), Eretz Hanegev. Tel-Aviv, 1979: 621–630.

  6. Mushan HV. Sedenterization of the Bedouins in Israel. Integration and development in Israel. Jerusalem: The Institute of Urban Studies, 1970: Chapter 26.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Shmuelli A. Sedenterization in Israel. (Hebrew). In: Gradus Y, Shmuelli A (eds), Eretz Hanegev. Tel-Aviv, 1979: 673–690.

  8. Statistical Abstracts of Israel 1993, No 44. Central Bureau of Statistics. Jerusalem: Hemed Press, Ltd, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Fraser D, Weitzman S, Blondheim S, et al. The prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors among male Bedouins: A population in transition. Eur J Epidemiol 1990; 6: 273–278.

    Google Scholar 

  10. McConnochie KM, Roghmann KJ, Liptak GS. Hospitalization for lower respiratory illness in infants: Variation in rates among counties in New York State and areas within Monroe County. J Pediatr 1995; 126: 220–229.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Hemmelgarn B, Klassen R, Habbick BF, et al. Use of gastrointestinal and respiratory illness hospitalization rates as indicators of different social influences. Can J Public Health 1993; 84: 136–138.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Munoz E, Powers JR, Nienhuys TG, et al. Social and environmental factors in 10 aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory: Relationship to hospital admissions of children. Med J Aust 1992; 156: 529–533.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Diagnostic statistics of hospitalizations. Jerusalem: Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, 1991.

  14. Statistical Abstracts of Israel 1991, No 42. Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, Jerusalem, Graph Press Ltd, 1991.

  15. 1983 Census of Population and Housing Publication No. 5. Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Jerusalem, 1985.

  16. Dagan R, Sofer S, Klish WJ, et al. Infant feeding practices among Bedouins in transition from seminomadic to settlement conditions in the Negev area of Israel. Isr J Med Sci 1984; 20: 1029–1034.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Dagan R, Sofer S, Klish WJ, et al. Growth and nutritional status of Bedouin infants in the Negev desert, Israel: Evidence for marked stunting in the presence of only mild malnutrition. Am J Clin Nutr 1983; 38: 747–756.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Forman MR, Hundt GL, Berendes HW, et al. Undernu186 trition among Bedouin Arab children: A follow up of the Bedouin infant feeding study. Am J Clin Nutr 1995; 61: 495–500.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Harlap S, Prywes R, Grover NB, et al. Maternal, perinatal and infant health in Bedouins and Jews in southern Israel. Isr J Med Sci 1977; 13: 14–28.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Dagan R, Landau D, Haikin H, et al. Hospitalization of Jewish and Bedouin infants in southern Israel for bronchiolitis caused by respiratory syncytial virus. Pediatr Infect Dis J 1993; 12: 381–386.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Dagan R, Bar-David Y, Sarov B, et al. Rotavirus diarrhea in Jewish and Bedouin children in the Negev region of Israel: Epidemiology, clinical aspects and possible role of malnutrition in severity of illness. Pediatr Infect Dis J 1990; 9: 314–321.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Rosenthal J, Dagan R, Press J, et al. Differences in the epidemiology of childhood community-acquired bacterial meningitis between two ethnic populations cohabiting in one geographic area. Pediatr Infect Dis J 1988; 7: 630–633.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Finkelman Y, Yagupsky P, Fraser D, et al. Epidemiology of Shigella infections in two ethnic groups in a single geographic region in southern Israel. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 1994; 13: 367–373.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Halfon-Yaniv I, Dagan R. Epidemiology of invasive Haemophilus influenzae type b in Bedouins and Jews in southern Israel. Pediatr Infect Dis J 1990; 9: 321–326.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Guerrant RL, Hughes JM, Lima NL, et al. Diarrhea in developed and developing countries: Magnitude, special settings, and etiologies. Rev Infect Dis 1990; 12: S41–S50.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Kapikian AZ. Viral gastroenteritis. JAMA 1993; 269: 627–630.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Jin S, Kilmore PE, Holman RC, et al. Trends in hospitalizations for diarrhea in United States children from 1979 through 1992: Estimates of the morbidity associated with rotavirus. Pediatr Infec Dis J 1996; 15: 397–404.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Morris-K, Morgenlander M, Gahagen S, et al. Woodburning stoves and lower respiratory tract infection in American Indian Children. Am J Dis Child 1990 144(4): 490.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Larson TV, Koenig JQ. Wood smoke: Emissions and noncancer respiratory effects. Annu Rev Public Health 1994; 15: 133–56.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Forman MR, Hundt GL, Graubard B, et al. The fortyday rest period and infant feeding practices among Negev Bedouin Arab women in Israel. Med Anthropol 1990; 12: 207–216.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Anderson LJ, Parker RA, Strikas RA, et al. Day-care center attendance and hospitalization for lower respiratory tract illness. Pediatrics 1988; 82: 300–308.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Wissow LS, Gittelsohn AM, Szklo M, et al. Poverty, race and hospitalization for childhood asthma. Am J Public Health 1988; 78: 777–782.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Kotloff KL, Wasserman SS, Steciak JY, et al. Acute diarrhea in Baltimore children attending an outpatient clinic. Pediatr Infect Dis J 1988; 7: 753–759.

    Google Scholar 

  34. Gracey M, Anderson CM. Hospital admissions for infections of aboriginal and non-aboriginal infants and children in western Australia 1981–86. Aust Paediatr J 1989; 25: 230–235.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Conway SP, Phillips RR, Panday S. Admission to hospital with gastroenteritis. Arch Dis Child 1990; 65: 579–584.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Nurmi T, Salminen E, Ponka A. Infections and other illnesses of children in day-care centers in Helsinki II: The economic losses. Infection 1991; 19: 331–335.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Epidemiology Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

    Amalia Levy, Drora Fraser & Hillel Vardi

  2. Pediatric Infectious Disease Unit, Soroka University, ISRAEL

    Ron Dagan

Authors
  1. Amalia Levy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Drora Fraser
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Hillel Vardi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Ron Dagan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Levy, A., Fraser, D., Vardi, H. et al. Hospitalizations for infectious diseases in Jewish and Bedouin children in southern Israel. Eur J Epidemiol 14, 179–186 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007439908351

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007439908351

Search

Navigation