Adherence to health management guidelines for children with Down’s syndrome at the Bustamante Hospital for Children, Jamaica

Health surveillance of children with Down’s syndrome may be inadequate. We aimed to assess adherence to health management guidelines at the main paediatric hospital in Jamaica. Ours was a retrospective descriptive study over a five-year period. Data on demographics, co-morbidities, investigations, referrals and interventions were recorded. Of 41 children included in the study, 85% were diagnosed in the neonatal period. Congenital heart disease in 29 (76%) and ophthalmological disorders in 13/24 (54%) were the most common co-morbidities. Evaluations in accordance with the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines were carried out in only 46% of the children for echocardiography, 48% for ophthalmology, 30% for hearing evaluation and 10% for neonatal thyroid screening. Thus, the recommended guidelines were not carried out in a timely manner in the majority of the children. Education of healthcare providers and caregivers along with the provision of adequate resources may help to resolve this inadequacy.

[1]  M. Thame,et al.  The Incidence of Cardiac Lesions among Children with Down's Syndrome in Jamaica - A Prospective Study. , 2014, The West Indian medical journal.

[2]  M. Senanayake,et al.  Adherence to preventive health care in children and young adults with Down syndrome (DS) in Sri Lanka. , 2014, The Ceylon medical journal.

[3]  A. Taanila,et al.  Healthcare and guidelines: A population-based survey of recorded medical problems and health surveillance for people with Down syndrome , 2011, Journal of intellectual & developmental disability.

[4]  Marilyn J Bull,et al.  Health Supervision for Children With Down Syndrome , 2001, Pediatrics.

[5]  H. Trotman,et al.  Congenital cardiovascular lesions in children with trisomy 21 at the Bustamante Hospital for Children , 2010, Cardiology in the Young.

[6]  E. Kerem,et al.  Optimizing health care for individuals with Down syndrome in Israel. , 2009, The Israel Medical Association journal : IMAJ.

[7]  C. Chow,et al.  Medical issues among children and teenagers with Down syndrome in Hong Kong. , 2008, Down's syndrome, research and practice : the journal of the Sarah Duffen Centre.

[8]  N. Virji-Babul,et al.  Use of health care guidelines in patients with Down syndrome by family physicians across Canada. , 2007, Paediatrics & child health.

[9]  H. Hoey,et al.  Guidelines for the medical management of Irish children and adolescents with Down syndrome. , 2005, Irish medical journal.

[10]  S. Larkins,et al.  Accuracy of clinical diagnosis in Down’s syndrome , 2004, Archives of Disease in Childhood.

[11]  P. Morrison,et al.  Accuracy of the clinical diagnosis of Down syndrome. , 2004, The Ulster medical journal.

[12]  Kazuhiro Ishii,et al.  [Down syndrome]. , 2003, Ryoikibetsu shokogun shirizu.

[13]  R. Hussain,et al.  The changing survival profile of people with Down's syndrome: implications for genetic counselling , 2002, Clinical genetics.