Table 1 Demographics of the two populations under Israeli health policy included in the study, East Jerusalem (EJ) and Israel (IL)

N

659

1099

N/a

Age of child (years), mean, sd

2.04, 1.42

1.95, 1.35

0.27

Percentage males

57.8

57.3

0.84

Mean number of people in household

4.9

4.4

<0.01

Proportions with:

2-3 people

24.1

23.6

4-6 people

57.7

71.1

7+ people

18.2

5.3

Mean number of physician visits per child in previous three months

2.9

4.0

<0.01

Proportion of children with in-patient hospital episodes in previous three months

11.5

7.2

<0.01

Proportion of children ever breastfed

94.6

63.3

<0.01

Proportion of children breastfed for more than 6 months

55.6

18.3

<0.01

Proportion of children living in a house where tobacco is smoked

49.47

26.23

<0.01

Proportion with male smoker in house

45.4

28.9

0.0125

Proportion with female smoker in house

8.7

21.6

<0.01

Among children with a diagnosis, proportion of:

URTI^a

66.0

49.0

<0.01

Other infections^b

17.6

30.0

0.0011

Other non-infectious issues^c

16.5

21.3

0.16

The proportion of prescribed antibiotics among those with an infectious diagnosis on screening day

36.4

12.7

<0.01

Proportion of children who received antibiotics in the previous three months

28.2

11.9

<0.01

Proportion of children with complete primary immunisation, according to the NIP

98.9

97.9

0.11

Proportion of children who had ever received influenza vaccine ^

4.7

11.8

<0.01

Proportion of children who received PCV7 vaccine in 2009^^

2.6

30.7

<0.01

Proportion of children who received PCV7 vaccine in 2010^^^

55.6

62.5

0.04