[Primary care resources use variation by under seven year old children in a rural and an urban area. Cohort study].
OBJECTIVE
[corrected] To describe differences between two health districts in primary care resource use.


METHODS
Retrospective population cohort study.


METHODS
A rural healthdistrict (RD) and an urban health district (UD).


METHODS
A cohort of children born in 1991 in a UD (n=104) and a cohort of children born in 1991 and 1992 in an RD (n=88), registered in their primary care centres between 0 and 6 years old.


METHODS
Attention episodes, requested visits, practicioner programmed visits, nursery programmed visits and diagnosis tests.


RESULTS
Significative differences were noticed in the attention episode average(ZU=34.0; 95% CI, 31.5%-36.5%); (ZR=25.6; 95% CI, 22.7%-28.5%), in requested visits (ZU=45.8; 95% CI, 41.8%-49.9%); (ZR=28.8; 95% CI, 25.3%-31.9%), in practicioner programmed visits (ZU=7.1; 95% CI, 6.6%-7.5%), (ZR=11.2; 95% CI, 10.7%-11.7%) and in nursery programmed visits (ZU=9.8; 95% CI, 9.0%-10.6%) (ZR=12.0; 95% CI, 11.4%-12.5%). At least one diagnosis test was applied to 90.3% of children in the UD and to 64.8% of children in the RD; and in the UD for each attention episode 1.32 (95% CI, 1.28%-1.36%) requested visits were attended to and 0.2 (95% CI, 0.17%-0.23%) diagnosis tests were made; whereas in the RD 1.1 (95% CI, 1.08%-1.13%) requested visits and 0.09 (95% CI, 0.06%-0.12%) diagnosis tests. In both health districts the average of attention episodes, requested visits and tests was significantly higher in children who had been hospitalized.


CONCLUSIONS
Primary care services utilization and the number of diagnosis test and attention episode visits are higher in the urban district than in the rural one.
Oterino de la Fuente
D
D
Fundación Instituto de Investigación en Servicios de Salud. Asturias. España. Centro de Salud de Teatinos. Asturias. España. doterino@eresmas.net
Martín Díaz
R
R
Díaz Megido
L A
LA
Alvargonzález Terrero
B
B
D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006295:Health Resources / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019037:Urban Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*