Healthcare utilization for acute and chronic diseases of young, school-age children in the rural and non-rural setting.
To determine the most frequently diagnosed conditions among rural and non-rural children age 5 to 9 and assess for environmental influences, data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (1996-2001) were used to examine frequencies of diagnoses in children age 5 to 9. Separately, we examined rural and non-rural outpatient physician visits in weighted multivariate logistic regression models. Overall, the most frequent diagnosis was routine health check, followed by several acute conditions. When analyzed separately, non-rural children were significantly more likely to visit a physician for routine health check (P = 0.002), asthma (P = 0.005), and acute upper respiratory infection (P = 0.037). Rural counterparts were significantly more likely to be seen for attention deficit disorder (P = 0.000), otitis media (P = 0.017), chronic rhinitis (P = 0.017) and influenza (P = 0.037). Children age 5 to 9 are healthy overall. When illness occurs, it is usually acute. Rural and non-rural, young, school-aged children exhibit many similarities in healthcare utilization, but differences occur. Most surprising is the difference in the diagnosis frequency of attention deficit disorder.
Cayce
Kimberly A
KA
Department of Dermatology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA.
Krowchuk
Daniel P
DP
Feldman
Steven R
SR
Camacho
Fabian T
FT
Balkrishnan
Rajesh
R
Fleischer
Alan B
AB
D000208:Acute Disease; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002908:Chronic Disease; D006801:Humans; D009309:National Center for Health Statistics, U.S.; D012140:Respiratory Tract Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D012424:Rural Population; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014505:Urban Population