© 2008 The International Society of Dermatology International Journal of Dermatology 2008, 47, 1121–1125 1121 Abstract Objective This study was carried out to evaluate the frequency and seasonal characteristics of dermatological problems of juvenile outpatients in the dermatology polyclinic. Material and method Children under the age of 17 treated in an outpatient setting in our polyclinic within a 10-year period were retrospectively evaluated. Results The study registered a total of 3244 patients, of whom 1651 (50.90%) were females, and 1593 (49.10%) were males. The largest group was infectious diseases, with 1031 patients (31.78%). This was followed by the dermatitis group with 635 patients (19.57%). The months when the number of presentations at the hospital was the highest were August and November, and the months with the lowest number of presentations were January and July. Conclusion In the present study we found that the most frequent cause of hospital visits of juvenile outpatients at our polyclinic was infectious diseases and dermatitis, and that there was significant correlation between diseases and seasons. Blackwell Publishing Ltd Oxford, UK IJD International Journal of Dermatology 0011-9059 1365-4632 © 2008 The International Society of Dermatology XXX Report The frequency and seasonal variations in juvenile patients Cicek et al. Report The frequency and seasonal variations in juvenile outpatients treated in a dermatology polyclinic Demet Cicek, MD, Basak Kandi, MD, Sevilay Oguz, MD, Haydar Ucak, MD, Yunus Saral, MD, and Abdullah Kurt, MD From the Firat University Faculty of Medicine, Departments of Dermatology, University Faculty of Medicine, Departments of Pediatrics Correspondence Dr Demet Cicek Firat University Faculty of Medicine Departments of Dermatology TR23119, Elazig-Turkey E-mail: drdemetcicek@yahoo.com Introduction Children between 0 and 18 years of age comprised 38.3% of the population of our country in 2000. 1 Distribution and frequency of dermatological diseases observed in the juvenile age group are different than those in adults. Viral–bacterial–fungal infections, acne, nevi, dermatitis-group diseases, hair diseases, as well as diseases like psoriasis are commonly seen in this age group. Also, seasonal changes are observed in the incidence of dis- eases common in childhood. 2,3 This study was conducted to evaluate clinical characteris- tics of juvenile outpatients treated in our polyclinic and to determine the relation between seasonal change and diseases. Materials and Methods Information in register files of 3244 juvenile outpatients between 0 and 16 years of age treated in our polyclinic in a period of 10 years were examined and retrospectively evaluated. Dermatological diagnoses were divided into 15 groups including infections, dermatitis, erythematous-squamous diseases, hair diseases, urticaria, drug reactions, genodermatoses, nevi, acne, reactive dermatitis, pruritus–xerosis, insect bite, pigmentation disorders, benign vascular tumors–malformations and another group consisting of various diseases. Patients’ complaints, dermatological examination findings, required laboratory tests, required consultations, diagnoses given and treatments administered were registered. In the diagnosis of the dermatological disease as a result of the dermatological examination, diagnostic tests like Native preparation examination, evaluation under Wood light, bacteria and fungus cultures, skin biopsy examinations, viral serology, autoantibodies, RAST, pathergy, prick, and patch tests were used. Seasonal changes were determined according to autumn (September, October, November), winter (December, January, February), spring (March, April, May) and summer (June, July, August) months. Our city has a terrestrial climate where there are four distinct seasons thus making it possible to establish the seasonal distribution of diseases. Mean temperature in 2006 ranged between 27.3 °C (July) and – 0.6 °C (January). The highest mean temperature was 34.2 °C in July and 3.0 °C in January, while the lowest mean temperature was 19.1 °C in July and –3.6 °C in January The lowest rate of humidity was observed in July (40.6%) and the highest rate of humidity in January (73.2%). SPSS 12.0 package software was used in statistical analyses. Values obtained in the study were presented as mean ± SD. χ 2 -test was used in the comparisons between groups. Values for which P < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results Of the 54,528 outpatients treated in our polyclinic in a 10-year period, 3244 (5.94) were in the 0–16 juvenile age group. In the juvenile age group, 1651 patients (50.90%) were girls and 1593 (49.10%) were boys. Boy : girl ratio in the patients was found to be 0.96, while the mean age was 9.54 ± 4.7. The