Jaime Barrio-Cortes, Beatriz Benito-Sánchez, Raquel Sánchez-Ruano, César Alfonso García-Hernández, María Teresa Beca-Martínez, María Martínez-Cuevas, Almudena Castaño-Reguillo, Cristina Muñoz-Lagos
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Pediatric patients with chronic conditions frequently have unmet care needs, make extensive use of healthcare services, and often encounter fragmented, non-centered care. This study aimed to analyze the differences in the utilization of primary care (PC) and hospital care (HC) services by these patients according to sex, age, and complexity and to identify associated factors. A cross-sectional study was conducted in a basic health area of Madrid, including patients under 18 years. Among these patients, 15.7% had ≥1 chronic disease, 54.1% were male, the average age was 9.5 years, 3.5% had complexity, and 11.3% had multimorbidity. The mean number of contacts/year with the healthcare system was 9.1, including 8.3 contacts/year with PC (4.9 with pediatricians and 1.9 with nurses) and 0.8 contacts/year with HC (0.8 in external consultations and 0.01 hospitalizations). The factors associated with PC utilization were complexity; female sex; European origin; and diseases like asthma, epilepsy, stroke, recurrent urinary infection, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and anxiety, while older age was negatively associated. Thyroid disorders were significantly associated with HC utilization. These findings could help guide the design of optimized pediatric patient-centered care approaches to coordinate care across healthcare services and reduce high healthcare utilization, therefore improving the healthcare outcomes and quality of life for these patients.
期刊介绍:
Journal of Personalized Medicine (JPM; ISSN 2075-4426) is an international, open access journal aimed at bringing all aspects of personalized medicine to one platform. JPM publishes cutting edge, innovative preclinical and translational scientific research and technologies related to personalized medicine (e.g., pharmacogenomics/proteomics, systems biology). JPM recognizes that personalized medicine—the assessment of genetic, environmental and host factors that cause variability of individuals—is a challenging, transdisciplinary topic that requires discussions from a range of experts. For a comprehensive perspective of personalized medicine, JPM aims to integrate expertise from the molecular and translational sciences, therapeutics and diagnostics, as well as discussions of regulatory, social, ethical and policy aspects. We provide a forum to bring together academic and clinical researchers, biotechnology, diagnostic and pharmaceutical companies, health professionals, regulatory and ethical experts, and government and regulatory authorities.