Background:
The occurrence of contagious diseases among children
attending day care centers (DCCs) is high. The possibility of
reducing absences due to infections with an infection prevention
program was investigated.Materials and
Methods:
The intervention study was conducted as an open,
controlled cluster study. It included 60 municipal DCCs in one
of the seven districts of the City of Helsinki; 228 DCCs in the
other six districts served as controls. The main indicator was
the occurrence of absences due to upper respiratory tract
infections, otitis media, eye infection and diarrhea per
child-month.Results:
The intervention reduced the absences due to infections by
26% among under 3-year olds, but not among older children. The
same phenomenon was observed when similar paired random control
DCCs were compared with the intervention DCCs.Conclusion:
Effective prevention of absences due to infections is
possible among under 3-year olds by implementing a simple and
inexpensive infection control program.