title: Provider Visits for Asthma: Potential Barriers for Insured Children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The barriers to provider visits for asthma in insured children are not well understood. Our objective was to examine the relationship between parent, family, and child attributes and asthma visits in insured children.
  
  
  METHODS
  This retrospective, cross-sectional analysis of 2007 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey-Household Component data included insured children 0-17 years old reported to have active asthma. We summed the number of provider visits during which asthma was treated or diagnosed to represent the frequency of asthma visits during the year. Probit models were used to estimate the relationship between parent, family, and child attributes and asthma visits.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seventy percent of the 542 children did not have an asthma visit during the year. Children with parents employed full time were 16 percentage points less likely to have an asthma visit than children whose parents were not working (P=.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Many insured children go more than a year without seeing a provider for their asthma, signaling that insurance is not sufficient to guarantee children will receive asthma monitoring. The attributes related to asthma visits suggest potential barriers that providers might want to consider to increase participation in asthma visits.
authors.affiliation: University of Iowa College of Pharmacy. amber-goedken@uiowa.edu.
authors.forename: Amber M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Goedken
authors.forename: Julie M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Urmie
authors.forename: Linnea A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Polgreen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001249:Asthma / Q000188:drug therapy; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D019458:Insurance Coverage; D007348:Insurance, Health; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies