Factors Affecting Health Care Utilization Associations Among Young Adolescents With Persistent or Recurrent Pain

It is unclear how family factors affect health care utilization among youth with persistent or recurrent pain, despite potential relevance to interventions targeting treatment barriers.

We aimed to examine health care utilization among young adolescents with persistent or recurrent pain and family factor influences toward higher health care utilization.

We analyzed longitudinal data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study and coded pain as none, infrequent (present 1-2 years), or persistent/recurrent pain (present 3-4 years). Higher health care utilization was coded as nonroutine or emergency department visit at ≥2 years. Parent-reported education, pain status, family income, and insurance status were recorded. Logistic regression examined the contributions of the child's pain and family factors toward higher health care utilization.

Among 5960 youth, 1908 (32%) had persistent/recurrent pain and 2199 (37%) had infrequent pain. Youth with persistent/recurrent pain were more likely to have higher health care utilization compared to those without pain (adjusted odds ratio [OR]: 2.39) or those with infrequent pain (OR: 1.79). Higher health care utilization was associated with parents' pain (adjusted OR: 1.22) and higher education (adjusted OR: 1.44), and family income below the poverty line (adjusted OR: 1.26), controlling for child characteristics and pain status.

Findings show how youths' persistent/recurrent pain, parental, and family socioeconomic factors affect health care utilization among young adolescents, emphasizing a need for family-centered care and economic policies.