Factors associated to outpatient care utilization by children (under five years of age)

Revista Brasileira de Epidemiologia

Silva, Raimundo Antonio da²  Gomes, Uilho Antônio¹  Silva, Antônio Augusto Moura da²  Tonial, Sueli Rosina² 

[1] Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, Brasil;Universidade Federal do Maranhão, São Luís, Brasil

关键词: Health services research. Referral and consultation. Social inequity. Health services research. Child;    preschool.;   

DOI  :  10.1590/S1415-790X1999000100006

学科分类：过敏症与临床免疫学

来源: SciELO

【 摘 要 】

Children outpatient health care utilization was estimated by a cross-sectional household survey using multi-stage cluster sampling in the city of São Luís, in the State of Maranhão, Brazil. 711 mothers or caretakers of children aged from 3 to 59 months answered a standardized questionnaire. The aim was to study factors associated with non-consultation and verify if the National Health Service (SUS) implementation and public outpatient care expansion reduced inequality in the use of health services. More than two thirds, 67.2% of the children, had been seen by a physician when sick in the previous trimester. The National Health Service funded 74.9% of the services. A low percentage, 0.7%, did not get an appointment, indicating that very few cases remained unattended to. After adjustment for confounding factors by means of the Cox proportional hazards model modified for cross-sectional design, predisposing factors, i.e. maternal education, child age and gender, maternal age, number of siblings, and head of household's occupation explained little of the non-consultation rate. Enabling factors, i.e. family income and health insurance did not predict non-consultation. The main predictor for not having an appointment was not needing medical care, because healthy children were at a greater risk of not visiting a doctor.

【 授权许可】

CC BY