Geographic Inequalities of Respiratory Health Services Utilization during Childhood in Edmonton and Calgary, Canada: A Tale of Two Cities

Jesus Serrano-Lomelin, Charlene C. Nielsen, Anne Hicks, Susan Crawford, Jeffrey A. Bakal and Maria B. Ospina
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Jesus Serrano-Lomelin: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2S2, Canada
Charlene C. Nielsen: School of Public Health, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 1C9, Canada
Anne Hicks: Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 1C9, Canada
Susan Crawford: Alberta Perinatal Health Program, Alberta Health Services, Calgary, AB T2N 2T9, Canada
Jeffrey A. Bakal: Provincial Research Data Services, Alberta Health Services, Edmonton, AB T6G 2C8, Canada
Maria B. Ospina: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2S2, Canada

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 23, 1-17

Abstract: Young children are susceptible to respiratory diseases. Inequalities exist across socioeconomic groups for paediatric respiratory health services utilization in Alberta. However, the geographic distribution of those inequalities has not been fully explored. The aim of this study was to identify geographic inequalities in respiratory health services utilization in early childhood in Calgary and Edmonton, two major urban centres in Western Canada. We conducted a geographic analysis of data from a retrospective cohort of all singleton live births occurred between 2005 and 2010. We aggregated at area-level the total number of episodes of respiratory care (hospitalizations and emergency department visits) that occurred during the first five years of life for bronchiolitis, pneumonia, lower/upper respiratory tract infections, influenza, and asthma-wheezing. We used spatial filters to identify geographic inequalities in the prevalence of acute paediatric respiratory health services utilization in Calgary and Edmonton. The average health gap between areas with the highest and the lowest prevalence of respiratory health services utilization was 1.5-fold in Calgary and 1.4-fold in Edmonton. Geographic inequalities were not completely explained by the spatial distribution of socioeconomic status, suggesting that other unmeasured factors at the neighbourhood level may explain local variability in the use of acute respiratory health services in early childhood.

Keywords: health inequalities; spatial filters; early childhood; respiratory diseases (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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