Descriptive epidemiology of health problems in Vaslui district, Romania

Purpose To describe the characteristics of morbidity in one district of Romania and to identify specific priority areas for preventive measures or further research. Method A descriptive retrospective study, cases being identified using routinely collected data on morbidity from a district public health authority. Study population was defined as those resident in Vaslui district, an area characterized by lower socioeconomic development located in the north-eastern region of Romania (Moldova). The main outcome measures were occurrence and prevalence rates of events and patterns of hospital utilization over the study period (1996–2001). Results The overall occurrence rate was 46,779.1 per 100,000 person-years with a declining trend over the 6-year study period. The highest values were amongst children. The most common causes were respiratory diseases (36.3%) and digestive diseases (31.4%) followed by infectious/parasitic diseases (5.8%), nervous system/sense organs diseases (5.6%) and skin/subcutaneous diseases (5.0%). The point prevalence rate increased steadily from 8.4% in 1996 to 12.5% in 2001, the picture being dominated by anemia in children and cardiovascular diseases (i.e., hypertension, ischemic cardiopathy) in adults. The leading cause for hospitalization remains respiratory diseases followed by cardiovascular and digestive diseases (39.5% of all diagnoses). Conclusions The results suggest a number of prevention priorities amongst Vaslui residents such as respiratory diseases especially in children less than 1 year of age and adults over 65 years, chronic cardiovascular diseases in adults or digestive diseases in the whole population. This work can be used as a starting point for other observational studies on health information systems as well as on broader determinants of health within this community.