TY - JOUR
T1 - Use of health services by remote dwelling Aboriginal infants in tropical northern Australia
T2 - a retrospective cohort study
AU - Bar-Zeev, Sarah J.
AU - Kruske, Sue G.
AU - Barclay, Lesley M.
AU - Bar-Zeev, Naor H.
AU - Carapetis, Jonathan R.
AU - Kildea, Sue V.
N1 - Funding Information:
Special thanks to the staff and management of participating health centres and hospital and to Haddon Witten for the development of the database. SBZ is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Training Scholarship in Indigenous Australian Health Research, the Helen and Bori Liberman Family Scholarship and the Australian College of Midwives Research Scholarship. NBZ is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Training Scholarship in Indigenous Australian Health Research and the Australian Academy of Science Lola Douglas Award for Medical Science. The 1 + 1 = A Healthy Start to Life study is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council.
PY - 2012/2/28
Y1 - 2012/2/28
N2 - Background: Australia is a wealthy developed country. However, there are significant disparities in health outcomes for Aboriginal infants compared with other Australian infants. Health outcomes tend to be worse for those living in remote areas. Little is known about the health service utilisation patterns of remote dwelling Aboriginal infants. This study describes health service utilisation patterns at the primary and referral level by remote dwelling Aboriginal infants from northern Australia.Results: Data on 413 infants were analysed. Following birth, one third of infants were admitted to the regional hospital neonatal nursery, primarily for preterm birth. Once home, most (98%) health service utilisation occurred at the remote primary health centre, infants presented to the centre about once a fortnight (mean 28 presentations per year, 95%CI 26.4-30.0). Half of the presentations were for new problems, most commonly for respiratory, skin and gastrointestinal symptoms. Remaining presentations were for reviews or routine health service provision. By one year of age 59% of infants were admitted to hospital at least once, the rate of hospitalisation per infant year was 1.1 (95%CI 0.9-1.2).Conclusions: The hospitalisation rate is high and admissions commence early in life, visits to the remote primary health centre are frequent. Half of all presentations are for new problems. These findings have important implications for health service planning and delivery to remote dwelling Aboriginal families.
AB - Background: Australia is a wealthy developed country. However, there are significant disparities in health outcomes for Aboriginal infants compared with other Australian infants. Health outcomes tend to be worse for those living in remote areas. Little is known about the health service utilisation patterns of remote dwelling Aboriginal infants. This study describes health service utilisation patterns at the primary and referral level by remote dwelling Aboriginal infants from northern Australia.Results: Data on 413 infants were analysed. Following birth, one third of infants were admitted to the regional hospital neonatal nursery, primarily for preterm birth. Once home, most (98%) health service utilisation occurred at the remote primary health centre, infants presented to the centre about once a fortnight (mean 28 presentations per year, 95%CI 26.4-30.0). Half of the presentations were for new problems, most commonly for respiratory, skin and gastrointestinal symptoms. Remaining presentations were for reviews or routine health service provision. By one year of age 59% of infants were admitted to hospital at least once, the rate of hospitalisation per infant year was 1.1 (95%CI 0.9-1.2).Conclusions: The hospitalisation rate is high and admissions commence early in life, visits to the remote primary health centre are frequent. Half of all presentations are for new problems. These findings have important implications for health service planning and delivery to remote dwelling Aboriginal families.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84857421543&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84857421543&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/1471-2431-12-19
DO - 10.1186/1471-2431-12-19
M3 - Article
C2 - 22373262
AN - SCOPUS:84857421543
SN - 1471-2431
VL - 12
JO - BMC Pediatrics
JF - BMC Pediatrics
M1 - 19
ER -