The vast majority of two-and-a-half-year-olds consulted a doctor for a follow-up appointment at least once during the 12 months preceding the Growing Up in Quebec survey, but there are still 13 per cent of children for whom this was not the case, the Canadian Press learned from a report by l’Institut de la statistique du Québec (ISQ) released Thursday.
In a previous ISQ report published in 2025, it was indicated that 98 per cent of 18-month-old children had consulted a doctor for a follow-up appointment at least once since birth.
“In theory, children have annual checkups until about age five. Those without a doctor are probably less likely to have seen a doctor for a follow-up appointment. Generally, it’s the family doctor or pediatrician who conducts these follow-up appointments. And indeed, we see that there is still a slight inequality in the number of children who have seen a doctor,” Amélie Lavoie, coordinator of content and publications at the ISQ’s longitudinal studies department, mentioned in an interview.
The proportion of children who have seen a doctor for follow-up is lower among children living in a low-income household than among others (80 per cent versus 88 per cent).
The report also indicates that nearly three-quarters of children around two and-a-half years old have consulted a doctor for a health problem or illness in the past year.
This isn’t about seeing a doctor for a follow-up appointment, Lavoie emphasizes. “It’s really about: ‘My child has an ear infection, some kind of virus, we’re going to see a doctor.’ It’s a slightly different situation because it’s a different context. That’s where we were able to compare this time when the children were 17 months old and when the children were 29 months old.”
Indeed, there has been a slight decrease in the number of children who consulted for a health problem compared to what was observed a year earlier, 72 per cent versus 76 per cent.
Once again, children living in low-income households are proportionally less likely than others to have consulted a doctor for a health problem at least once (63 per cent versus 74 per cent).
Furthermore, there is a decrease in the proportion of toddlers who have consulted a doctor for a health problem at least 10 times, falling from six per cent at the age of 18 months to about four per cent at 28 months.
Another key finding is that the proportion of children diagnosed with at least one chronic health problem has increased, rising from 17 per cent at 18 months to nearly 34 per cent at 28 months. The problems most frequently reported by parents are skin conditions, such as eczema, allergies, asthma, and food intolerances.
The ISQ report was based on the Growing Up in Quebec longitudinal study, which follows more than 4,000 children born in Quebec in 2020-2021 and whose data will be collected annually until they reach the age of eight. The most recent data collection for the study took place across all regions of Quebec from May 2023 to March 2024, with more than 3,500 children participating.
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–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
The Canadian Press’s health coverage is supported by a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. The Canadian Press is solely responsible for this journalistic content.
