Effect of Frequency of Family Visiting upon the Reporting of Minor Illnesses

NUMBER of longitudinal studies of families have been made in order to observe the incidence of illness among their numbers. It is recognized by those who have conducted such studies that the interval between visits to the family has a marked effect upon the accuracy of reporting past illnesses, especially those of a minor nature. Thus, the memory of the informant constitutes an important factor which may influence the level of illness obtained in any morbidity study. The purpose of this paper is to consider some of the effects of the frequency of family visiting upon the accuracy of reporting minor illnesses. The data are limited to acute respiratory diseases because most illnesses in this class are of a minor