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Patterns of eye care use and expenditures among children with diagnosed eye conditions
Michael Ganz1, Ziming Xuan, David G Hunter
1Abt Associates Inc, Lexington, MA 02421, USA. mganz@hsph.harvard.edu
Insights
Children with diagnosed eye conditions use more healthcare services. However, Black children and those in low-income families receive fewer eye care services, indicating potential disparities in pediatric vision care.
Area of Science:
- Ophthalmology
- Health Services Research
- Pediatric Health
Background:
- Limited data exists on the utilization and costs of pediatric eye care services.
- Understanding disparities in children's eye care is crucial for equitable health outcomes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To describe the patterns of use and expenditure for eye care and non-eye care services among children under 18 in the U.S.
- To identify potential disparities in access and utilization of pediatric eye care.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys (1996-2001) for 48,304 U.S. children.
- Employed generalized linear models to adjust for child and family characteristics.
Main Results:
- Children with diagnosed eye conditions exhibited higher healthcare utilization and expenditure.
- Families of children with diagnosed eye conditions faced greater out-of-pocket costs.
- Black children and those below 400% federal poverty level showed lower service utilization, suggesting underuse.
Conclusions:
- Children with diagnosed eye conditions generally have higher healthcare use.
- Certain demographic groups, particularly Black children and those from low-income households, appear underserved in eye care.
- Stratified data on utilization and expenditure is essential for future planning and assessing progress in pediatric vision care.
Purpose:
Little is known about use and expenditure patterns of children's eye-care services and about possible disparities in care among children. This report describes the use and expenditure patterns of eye care and non-eye care services for children under 18 years old in the United States.
Methods:
Levels of use and expenditure were estimated using self-reported information from the nationally representative Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys (1996-2001) for 48,304 subjects under 18 years old from randomly selected households in the United States. Means presented for children with and without diagnosed eye conditions were adjusted for child and family characteristics using generalized linear models.
Results:
Children with diagnosed eye conditions had higher levels of use and expenditure than children without diagnosed conditions. Families of children with diagnosed eye conditions incurred higher out-of-pocket expenditures. Black children and children living below 400% of the federal poverty level had lower levels of use and expenditure, indicating that they received fewer and less intensive services.
Conclusions:
Children with diagnosed eye conditions experienced higher overall use of health care. Some groups of children appear to be underserved. Estimates of use and expenditure patterns, stratified by socioeconomic factors, will be needed to plan for future delivery of children's eye and vision care services and to assess progress toward Healthy People 2010 goals.
