Background: Hospital Fernando Fonseca is located in a suburban area that houses a great number of immigrants from developing countries.
Aims: To characterize and compare the immigrant and portuguese pediatric populations which have been admitted and referred to Social Service department.
Material and methods: Prospective study, from November 2004 to March 2005; demographic and socioeconomic data, diagnosis and social problems were analysed.
Results: A total of 35 children were observed, 22 (62.8%) immigrants, 42.9% of them less than 12-months old, with a predominance of female (54.5%), African origin (81.8%) and poor social-economical status (72.3%). The majority of parents (72.7%) came from a Portuguese Speaking African Country and 58.3% were illegal in our country. Most had a family doctor assigned (81.3%). Nineteen (87.5%) were admitted for organic disease and the social problem was detected later: poverty (9), negligence (7), physical aggression (3), abandon (2), psychological abuse (1), sexual abuse (1). Children were referred to Child Protection Committee (5) and Court (1); 6 children received economical support and 5 needed social support. When compared to the Portuguese population, social problems are more frequent in immigrant children (20% vs.7.5%; p =0,001), especially in African origin (81.8% vs.15.4%; p=0,00); low economic status (7.3% vs.55.6%; p =0.,423 ), poverty (37.5% vs. 26.6%; p=0.313) and physical aggression (13% vs. 8.3%; p =0.313) were more frequent in the immigrant and negligence being the most frequent social problem in the Portuguese population (33.3% vs. 29%; p =0.313).
Discussion: The growing number of immigrants and their social deficiencies raises important questions related to health care and social support for these families, to facilitate their social integration.