• Pediatric emergency care · Jan 2022

    Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Pediatric Mental Health-Related Emergency Department Visits.

    • Anna H Abrams, Gia M Badolato, Meleah D Boyle, Robert McCarter, and Monika K Goyal.
    • From the Department of Emergency Medicine, Children's Hospital Colorado, Aurora, CO.
    • Pediatr Emerg Care. 2022 Jan 1; 38 (1): e214e218e214-e218.

    ObjectivesTo test the hypotheses that (1) rates of mental health-related concerns presenting to pediatric emergency departments (ED) have increased (2) rates are increasing more in minority than nonminority youth.MethodsWe performed a 5-year retrospective cohort study of youth with mental health-related ED visits using the Pediatric Health Information System. We calculated rates of mental health-related visits, in aggregate and by race/ethnicity. The Poisson model was used to generate incidence rate ratios of unique mental health-related visits each year using census data as the population denominator.ResultsThere were 242,036 mental health-related visits that met the inclusion criteria, representing 160,656 unique patients. Approximately 7% of unique patients had 3 or more mental health-related visits, differing by race/ethnicity (8.75% non-Hispanic [NH]-Black vs 7.01% NH-White; adjusted odds ratio 1.14 [1.03, 1.26]). Overall, there were 42.8 mental health-related ED visits per 100,000 US children. The NH-Black children had higher rates of visits per 100,000 children compared with NH-Whites (66.1 vs 41.5; adjusted relative risk, 1.54 [1.50-1.59]). Mental health-related visits increased from 2012 to 2016 (33.31 [32.92-33.70] to 49.94 [49.46-50.41]). Every racial/ethnic group experienced an increase in rate of presentation over the study period; Hispanics experienced a significantly larger increase compared with NH-White children (P < 0.05).ConclusionsMental health-related ED visits among children are increasing overall, disproportionally affecting minority children. The NH-Black children have the highest visit rates, and rates among Hispanics are increasing at a significantly higher rate when compared with NH-Whites. These results indicate need for increased capacity of EDs to manage mental health-related complaints, especially among minority populations.Copyright © 2020 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

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