Abstract: Background:
Higher health care utilization has been proven among US children with eczema than those without, but disparities may exist among sociodemographic subgroups.
Objective:
To determine health care utilization trends among children with eczema across sociodemographic factors.
Methods:
We included children (0–17 years old) from the US National Health Interview Survey 2006–2018. We calculated the survey-weighted health care utilization by determining proportion of children attending a well-child checkup, seen by a medical specialist, and seen by a mental health professional in the previous 12 months for children with and without eczema, by race (white, black, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, and multiracial), Hispanic ethnicity (yes/no), age (0–5, 6–10, 11–17), and gender (male/female) subgroups using SPSS complex samples. Joinpoint regression was used to estimate piecewise log-linear trends in the survey-weighted prevalence, annual percentage change, and disparities between subgroups.
Results:
We included 149,379 children—there was higher health care utilization in children with eczema than those without. However, when comparing the average annual percentage change (AAPC), white children had a significantly higher AAPC of “attending a well-child checkup” than black children. In addition, only white children showed a significantly increasing trend in being “seen by a medical specialist,” whereas all other minority race subgroups had stagnant trends. For those “seen by a mental health professional,” there were increasing trends only in the male and non-Hispanic subgroups out of all the sociodemographic subgroups.
Conclusion:
Improving awareness among primary care physicians to refer children with moderate-to-severe eczema to medical specialists (eg, allergists, dermatologists, and mental health/attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder professionals) when necessary could improve quality of life and reduce emergency department visits—especially among minority race, Hispanic, and female children.
Supplementary Material
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