Emergency health care use and follow-up among sociodemographic groups of children who visit emergency departments for mental health crises.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Previous studies of differences in mental health care associated with children's sociodemographic status have focused on access to community care. We examined differences associated with visits to the emergency department.

Methods

We conducted a 6-year population-based cohort analysis using administrative databases of visits (n = 30,656) by children aged less than 18 years (n = 20,956) in Alberta. We measured differences in the number of visits by socioeconomic and First Nations status using directly standardized rates. We examined time to return to the emergency department using a Cox regression model, and we evaluated time to follow-up with a physician by physician type using a competing risks model.

Results

First Nations children aged 15-17 years had the

SUBMITTER: Newton AS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3447077 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature