On Sat, Jan 29, 2005 at 02:45:38PM +0000, Thomas Beale wrote: > Williamtfgoossen at cs.com wrote: > > > > I know that a lot of this material has already been classified > > and coded in the international classification for nursing > > practice of ICN (Geneva). This kind of referring to age and > > time is quite usual in nursing practice, (after birth, post > > operative, young), infant) > > > > what vocabularies and reference ranges should we be using? It > appears that we need not just sets of terms like "after birth", > "post operative" etc, but age ranges for them; and then there > will probably be a similar set for different disciplines. E.g. > I imagine that in perinatology "infant" might be defined as one > range, while for psychiatry it will be defined another way. So > a single vocabulary won't do it. >
This is an attempt to address the vocab and ranges issue. This is a difficult issue. There are numerous terms in use, which may be modulated by local factors and language of communication. There are no WHO definitions here. Variations in terminologies are large. The International Paed Assn accepts the following only: o Neonate : > 0 days <= 28 days (4 wks) o Infant : > 4 weeks <= 1 year o Child : > 1 year <= Adult (18 yr) This adult is a 'legal' definition (in most countries) rather than a biological entity. There is no biological definition for the term 'adult'. IOW, only the terms 'neonatal' and 'infant' are defined, and is accepted by ALL medical disciplines. The problem comes in the huge age group of 'child' encompassing 17 years ! I have not come across any clear definition by any international or professional body to things like 'adolescence', 'puberty' or other things brought out on the list (though they are in common use everywhere). In India, an age-group range for acceptance of terms are noted below. This is after discussions with a dozen or so paediatricians to direct questions like 'what do you infer or mean by the term toddler?'. This can at best serve as a starting point to work from. It may be prudent to get further opinions of practitiones in other countries before formalising these terms since these would have to be defined 'by the EHR'. o Toddler > 1 yr <= 2.5 yr (not yet learnt verbal commn) o Pre-school > 2.5 yr <= 5 yr (happiness !) o year-old ... e.g. 6 year old ... 9 year old child o Pre-teen > 9 yr <= 13 yr (occasionally used) o Adolescent > 12 yr <= 16 yr (infrequently used) o Teenager > 13 yr <= 19 yr (commonly used) The term 'puberty' is normally avoided because of individual and sex dependent variances, though sometime used by an odd practitioner here and there (mainly in Obs & Gynae). The term 'adolescence' is not in common usage here, this normally refers to the 12-16 year age group. The pre-teen term is seldom used and the 'year-old' nomenclature is used right through 6-12 yrs. (viz. 11 year old boy/ girl/ child). As stated above, there would be regional variations in use of these terms, and a consensus needs to be reached for ranges after studying all terms used for this sub-18 age group in different countries. This may serve the purpose of getting on track though ... Dr USM Bish Bangalore - If you have any questions about using this list, please send a message to d.lloyd at openehr.org
