A risk group's visits to medical services: five years' usage of well-baby and medical clinics by a group of children with alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency.

Visits to medical services during the first 5 years of life for 61 children with alpha 1ATD (but without liver disease) and 61 demographically similar control children without ATD were studied for frequency, diagnosis, severity of illness/complaint and extent of treatment. No significant differences were found between the ATD and control groups on any of these variables, suggesting no increased sickliness in the ATD-group and no evidence of increased parental anxiety about the child's health reflected in medical visits for little or no physical abnormality.