Abstract
Young children are susceptible to respiratory diseases. Inequalities exist across socioeconomic groups for paediatric respiratory health services utilization in Alberta. However, the geographic distribution of those inequalities has not been fully explored. The aim of this study was to identify geographic inequalities in respiratory health services utilization in early childhood in Calgary and Edmonton, two major urban centres in Western Canada. We conducted a geographic analysis of data from a retrospective cohort of all singleton live births occurred between 2005 and 2010. We aggregated at area-level the total number of episodes of respiratory care (hospitalizations and emergency department visits) that occurred during the first five years of life for bronchiolitis, pneumonia, lower/upper respiratory tract infections, influenza, and asthma-wheezing. We used spatial filters to identify geographic inequalities in the prevalence of acute paediatric respiratory health services utilization in Calgary and Edmonton. The average health gap between areas with the highest and the lowest prevalence of respiratory health services utilization was 1.5-fold in Calgary and 1.4-fold in Edmonton. Geographic inequalities were not completely explained by the spatial distribution of socioeconomic status, suggesting that other unmeasured factors at the neighbourhood level may explain local variability in the use of acute respiratory health services in early childhood.
Highlights
Paediatric respiratory diseases are a leading cause of morbidity in childhood, among children of preschool age [1]
This study analyses data on events of hospitalizations and emergency department visits due to respiratory outcomes from a retrospective cohort of all singleton live births (≥22 weeks of gestation) that occurred in Alberta between 1 April 2005 and 31 March 2010
81% of the Alberta population lives in urban centres: 1.2 million people in Calgary [25] and 972,000 in Edmonton [26]
Summary
Paediatric respiratory diseases are a leading cause of morbidity in childhood, among children of preschool age [1]. Early-childhood respiratory diseases have long-term negative consequences on adult health with major economic consequences for health systems [1]. Bronchiolitis, tuberculosis, and asthma are among the most common respiratory diseases affecting young children [2]. Individual factors such as preterm birth, maternal smoking, and maternal asthma, among others, have been related to lung function impairment in early life [3]. Socioeconomic factors have been identified as major drivers of respiratory diseases [4]. Respiratory diseases are generally more frequent among children from lower socioeconomic status
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