Seasonal variations in children’s calls to a help-line: implications for preventive services

Background: To investigate seasonal variations in telephone calls to a help-line for children, and their correlation to changes in length of day, latitude and age. Method: 691,787 calls to the Red Cross Help-Line in Norway for children in the three-year period 1996–1998 were included. Results: Monthly frequencies of calls deviated significantly from an expected even distribution (χ2=9446.34, df=11, P