A study at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Perth has confirmed the gut feelings of paediatricians and emergency specialists who say they have long suspected that children with unusual names are over-represented in emergency department admissions.
In a review of EmergencyDept. (ED) admissions for 4260 children they found that children with ‘pop-culture’ first names such as Brittney, Shania, Calvin and Orlando were twice as likely to be admitted as other children.
Children with ‘unique’ names such as Kiara-Angel and Jyrus were also at increased risk of admission, as were children with ‘Old Testament’ names like Zachariah, Abraham and Noah. And children given ‘surname-style’ first names such as Taylor and Mackenzie were also over represented in the ED, their study in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health shows.
Study author and ED specialist Dr Francis Willis says a childs’ first name may be an indirect marker of socio-economic status and thus health status. Medical staff may also unconsciously pay more attention to children with unusual names that stand out, which might result in them receiving additional treatment compared to children with
conventional names, he suggests.
He notes that similar anecdotal observations have been made by teachers, who have suggested that some names, such as Wayne and Charmaine, seem to be associated with ‘problem children’.
Dr Willis says another yet-to- be investigated impression is that boys with names that end with "–den", such as Jayden, are more likely to be taking stimulant medications for ADHD.
http://www.6minutes.com.au/articles/z1/view.asp?id=508894
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