Use of health services by children of smokers and nonsmokers in a health maintenance organization

Colleen McBride; Paula Lozano; Susan Curry; Daniel Rosner; Louis Grothaus

doi:10.2105/AJPH.88.6.897

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Use of health services by children of smokers and nonsmokers in a health maintenance organization

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Use of health services by children of smokers and nonsmokers in a health maintenance organization

Colleen McBride, Paula Lozano, Susan Curry, Daniel Rosner and Louis Grothaus

American journal of public health (1971), Vol.88(6), pp.897-902

06/01/1998

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.88.6.897

PMCID: PMC1508207

PMID: 9618616

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Abstract

Use of health services by children of smokers and nonsmokers was compared to assess whether exposure to environmental tobacco smoke resulted in greater use of health services among children of smokers. Primary care and emergency room visits, asthma-related prescriptions, and inpatient stays over the 42-month study period were compared for children of smokers (n = 498) and nonsmokers (n = 1062) who were enrolled in a health maintenance organization. Parents of children aged 1 through 11 years were identified from participants in 2 randomized smoking cessation trials. After adjustment for parental age, education, and health status and for child's age, there were no differences between children of smokers and children of nonsmokers in use of primary care or emergency room visits, asthma-related prescriptions, or inpatient stays. However, among those with any preventive care visits, children of smokers had significantly fewer visits than children of nonsmokers. Further study is needed to elucidate whether parents who smoke underutilize health services for their children or use services differently from nonsmoking parents and whether these differences have cost implications.

Age

Asthma

Children & youth

Emergency medical care

Families & family life

Health

Health maintenance organizations

Health services

Health services utilization

HMOs

Hospitals

Households

Marital status

Parents & parenting

Pediatrics

Prescriptions

Preventive medicine

Primary care

Respiratory diseases

Self help

Smoking cessation

Tobacco smoke

Variance analysis

Details

Title: Subtitle: Use of health services by children of smokers and nonsmokers in a health maintenance organization
Creators: Colleen McBride - University of Washington
Paula Lozano - Group Health Cooperative
Susan Curry - University of Washington
Daniel Rosner - Group Health Cooperative
Louis Grothaus - Group Health Cooperative
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: American journal of public health (1971), Vol.88(6), pp.897-902
Publisher: American Public Health Association
DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.88.6.897
PMID: 9618616
PMCID: PMC1508207
ISSN: 0090-0036
eISSN: 1541-0048
Language: English
Date published: 06/01/1998
Academic Unit: Health Management and Policy; Community and Behavioral Health
Record Identifier: 9984366379702771

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