Pediatric Asthma Patients Not Using ER as Often as Once Thought

Newswise — Pediatric asthma patients with low socioeconomic status and low quality primary care are five times less likely than those with higher quality primary care to utilize the Emergency Department as their primary source of asthma care and more likely to suffer from a significantly poorer quality of life. This according to a study presented Monday at the 2004 Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in San Francisco, CA.

Researchers at Children's National Medical Center (CNMC) in Washington, DC studied a nationally representative patient sample of approximately 5,600 patients from 1998. The data was collected by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) as part of the annual Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. The results of their research counter the popular thinking that patients with substandard primary care preferentially seek care in the ER as opposed to a traditional doctor's office setting and have worse asthma outcomes as a result.

"We were initially surprised by these findings, said Robert Freishtat, MD, MPH at Children's National Medical Center in Washington DC, the lead author of the study. "Traditional thinking is that patients with low socioeconomic status typically seek medical care in the emergency department because they are more likely to lack access to quality primary care. Lower quality primary care is largely accounted for by more significant barriers to health care access, such as difficulty getting an appointment or being seen after typical daytime hours. In fact, we found that among low socioeconomic status patients, those with lower quality primary care are less likely to seek health care in any setting, including the ER for any health ailment. This is supported by several other recent studies that examined socioeconomic disparities in access to health care in smaller groups of patients. Additionally, these patients suffer from a diminished quality of life with regards to physical and emotional health that is not accounted for by their socioeconomic status or their asthma severity."

Dr. Freishtat says the results of his research indicate that the barriers to health care access among the patients in his study probably ultimately contribute to their poorer quality of life and that opportunities to improve upon this depend on addressing these access barriers.

Children's National Medical Center, located in Washington, D.C., is a leader in the development of innovative new treatments for childhood illness and injury. Among the top pediatric hospitals in America, CNMC has been serving the nation's children for over 130 years. Visit our web site at http://www.dcchildrens.com.