• José Lorenzo Guerra Diez, Luis Gaite Pindado, Cristina Álvarez Álvarez, María Teresa Leonardo Cabello, Lino Álvarez Granda, and María Jesús Cabero Pérez.
• Urgencias de Pediatría, Hospital Marqués de Valdecilla, Santander, España. Electronic address: jguerra@humv.es.
• An Pediatr (Engl Ed). 2018 Jun 1; 88 (6): 322-328.

ObjectiveThe aim of the present study is to describe the trend in volume and age-specific rates in visits to the Paediatric Emergency Department of a university teaching hospital in Cantabria (Spain) from January 2001 to December 2013, and evaluate the influence of population growth on Emergency Department use.Material And MethodsA retrospective study was conducted in which an analysis was made on all Emergency Department visits over a 13 year period. Simple and polynomial linear regressions were used to assess the relationship between population size and Emergency Department attendance rates across 2 age groups (0-2 and 3-14 years).ResultsFrom 2001 to 2013, attendance in the Emergency Department increased by 14.1%, whereas the paediatric population rose by 26.3%. Rates of presentation per head of population were greatest among those aged<3 years: 1.48 (95% CI 1.40-1.56) vs. 0.46 (95% CI 0.44-0.48) for the older age group (P<.01). A significant regression equation was found (F[1, 11]=11.2, P<.05) with an R2=0.50, showing that population growth produces a continuous rise in the Emergency Department visits for those aged<3 years. However, ED presentations of patients aged 3-14 years fit a quadratic regression model (R2=0.48, F[2, 10]=4.6, P<.05) so increases in population increase ED presentations until an inflection point, after which increases in population will decrease ED visits.ConclusionsThose aged 0-2 years presented a steady increase in ED visits related to population growth, whereas children aged 3-14 years experienced a "saturation of the demand" and a reduction in ED presentations.Copyright © 2017 Asociación Española de Pediatría. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

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