Table 1
Sample Characteristics: Sociodemographics.
| Median Age of Caregiver (years) | 28 |
| Gender of Caregiver (Female) | 94.0% |
| Mean Age of Child (years) | 4.8 |
| Gender of Child (Male) | 50.9% |
| Caregiver’s Relationship to Child (Parent) | 79.3 |
| Income | |
| >10,000 pesos/month | 27% |
| <10,000 pesos/month | 47% |
| Unsure of income | 27% |
| Education | |
| Illiterate | 0.8% |
| Primary School (Incomplete) | 27.4% |
| Primary School (Complete) | 14.2% |
| High School (Incomplete) | 24.8% |
| High School (Complete) | 17.7% |
| Technical School | 0% |
| University | 15.0% |
| Marital Status | |
| Single | 34.5% |
| Civil Union | 51.3.6% |
| Married | 9.7% |
| Separated | 0.9% |
| Divorced | 2.7% |
| Widowed | 0.9% |
| Insurance Status | |
| Insured | 47% |
| Uninsured | 53% |
| Country of Birth | |
| Dominican Republic | 94.0% |
| Haiti | 6.0% |
Table 2
Characteristics of Presenting Complaint and ED Use.
| Symptoms | Child Seen By Another Doctor Prior to ER Visit | ||
| Fever | 40.2% | Yes | 25.4% |
| Vomiting | 19.7% | No | 74.6% |
| Diarrhea | 12.0% | Caregiver Used Medicine or Remedy at Home Prior to ER Visit | |
| Problems Breathing | 12.0% | Yes | 57.3% |
| Sore Throat | 15.4% | No | 42.7% |
| Child Needed Injection | 5.1% | ER Visits in Past 1 Month | |
| Cough | 5.1% | 0–1 visits | 61.0% |
| Open Wound | 11.1% | 2–3 visits | 31.9% |
| Broken Bone | 6.0% | 4–5 visits | 7.1% |
| Stomach Pain | 6.0% | 6–7 visits | 0.0% |
| Headache | 6.0% | 8–9 visits | 0.0% |
| Not Eating | 4.3% | 10+ visits | 1.8% |
| Rash | 6.8% | ER Visits in Past 6 Month | |
| Other | 16.2% | 0–1 visits | 30.8% |
| Average Duration of Illness (Days) | 3.7 | 2–3 visits | 44.7% |
| Child Sees a Doctor Regularly (1–2 visits/year) | 4–5 visits | 13.6% | |
| Yes | 53.8% | 6–7 visits | 11.7% |
| No | 46.2% | 8–9 visits | 0.0% |
| 10+ visits | 8.7% | ||
Table 3
Urgency of Presenting Complaint.
| Perceived Urgency of Illness | Child Triage Level | ||
| Extremely Urgent | 65% | Extremely Urgent | Excluded |
| Somewhat Urgent | 12.8% | Somewhat Urgent | 14.5% |
| Not Urgent | 12.8% | Not Urgent | 68.4% |
| No Response | 8.5% | No Response* | 17.1% |
[i] * Resident did not assign a triage level, but level of Somewhat Urgent or Not Urgent was utilized as child was not admitted and showed no signs corresponding to Extremely Urgent.
Table 4
Reasons for Visiting ER Instead of UNAP.
| ER is faster | 7.60% |
| ER is closer | 18.50% |
| Went to UNAP first | 6.50% |
| ER is better | 10.90% |
| UNAP doesn’t provide the service needed | 31.50% |
| No UNAP in neighborhood | 6.50% |
| Misinformation about UNAPs | 10.90% |
| Other | 7.60% |
Table 5
Distance to Care.
| Distance to Nearest Doctor | |
| 1–10 minutes | 58.1% |
| 11–20 minutes | 21.4% |
| 21–30 minutes | 11.1% |
| 41–40 minutes | 1.7% |
| 40+ minutes | 4.3% |
| Distance to Nearest UNAP | |
| 1–10 minutes | 42.7% |
| 11–20 minutes | 17.1% |
| 21–30 minutes | 11.1% |
| 41–40 minutes | 0.0% |
| 40+ minutes | 0.9% |
| Unsure | 15.4% |
Table 6
Factors Associated with lower ED Visit Frequency.
| Descriptive | Univariable | Multivariable | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N | No. (%) with high ER use | OR (95% CI) | P | OR (95% CI) | P | |
| Education | ||||||
| No high school | 50 | 22 (44) | Reference | Reference | ||
| Any high school | 63 | 13 (21) | 0.33 (0.14–0.76) | 0.009 | 0.31 (0.13–0.75) | 0.009 |
| Income | ||||||
| <10,000 pesos/month | 47 | 19 (40) | Reference | Reference | ||
| >10,000 pesos/month | 28 | 6 (21) | 0.40 (0.14–1.18) | 0.10 | 0.49 (0.16–1.48) | 0.20 |
| Unknown | 38 | 10 (26) | 0.53 (0.21–1.33) | 0.18 | 0.43 (0.16–1.14) | 0.09 |