Access to care for children with emotional/behavioral difficulties

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Health
• Health Services Research
• Child Psychology

Background:

• Emotional/behavioral difficulties (EBDs) are common chronic childhood conditions with significant long-term consequences.
• Existing research highlights disparities in EBD prevalence across demographic groups.
• Understanding access to care for children with EBD is crucial for addressing health inequities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate disparities in medical care access for children with EBD.
• To determine if EBD impacts care access, specifically delayed care due to cost and appointment difficulties.
• To examine the influence of demographics, insurance, and service use on care access for children with EBD.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of the US National Health Interview Survey data (2008-2011).
• Inclusion of 31,631 children aged 4-17.
• Modeling care access based on EBD status, demographic factors, insurance coverage, and service utilization.

Main Results:

• Children with EBD were over twice as likely to experience delayed care compared to those without EBD.
• This disparity persisted even after controlling for insurance status, demographics, and service use frequency.
• Children with EBD were less likely to be uninsured, yet still faced greater access barriers.

Conclusions:

• Children with EBD encounter significant, independent barriers to accessing timely medical care.
• Addressing these access issues is critical to mitigate the long-term impacts of EBD.
• Further research is needed to identify and dismantle systemic barriers to care for children with EBD.