Associations between parental mental health and other family factors and healthcare utilisation among children and young people: a retrospective, cross-sectional study of linked healthcare data
Author(s)
Dreyer, Kathryn
Williamson, Robert AP
Hargreaves, Dougal S
Rosen, Rebecca
Deeny, Sarah R
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Objective: To identify the degree to which parental diagnosis of depression or other long-term conditions, parental health-seeking behaviours and household factors were associated with a healthcare utilisation among children and young people (CYP) (0-15 years). Design: Retrospective, cross-sectional study of electronic health records, from 25 252 patients registered at a large, London-based primary care provider. The associations between children's healthcare utilisation and the characteristics of the child, their parents/carers and their household structure were examined using multivariable regression. Results: Controlling for parental utilisation, parental depression (vs not) was significantly associated with increased healthcare utilisation for CYP. Odds ratios for CYP with siblings=1.41 (95% CI 1.10 to 1.80) for emergency department (ED) attendances, 1.67 (95% CI 1.32 to 2.11) for outpatient appointments, 1.47 (95% CI 1.07 to 2.03) for inpatient admission, and rate rato=1.28 (95% CI 1.04 to 1.78) for general practitioner (GP) consultations.After adjusting for child and parental characteristics, parental general practice attendance (+1 from mean) was predictive of increased CYP general practice attendance, rate ratio 1.07 (95% CI 1.06 to 1.08) for CYP with siblings. Parental ED attendance also increased the risk of CYP ED attendance, with OR 1.27 (95% CI 1.12 to 1.44) for CYP with siblings. Conclusions: Parental depression is associated with increased utilisation of ED, outpatient and inpatient services by CYP, as well as with increased GP consultations among adolescents. Our results demonstrate that healthcare utilisation by CYP is associated with the health-seeking behaviour of adults in their household.
Date Issued
2018-07-30
Date Acceptance
2018-05-28
Citation
BMJ Paediatrics Open, 2018, 2 (1)
ISSN
2399-9772
Publisher
BMJ Publishing Group
Journal / Book Title
BMJ Paediatrics Open
Volume
2
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted. This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30094348
PII: bmjpo-2018-000266
Subjects
adolescent health
data collection
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Article Number
e000266