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<title>Objectives</title>
<p>This study compared the socioeconomic status, medical use and expenditures for infants (1–5 years), juveniles (6–12 years), and adolescents (13–19 years) with a chronic condition or disease to determine factors affecting health spending.</p></sec>
<sec>
<title>Methods</title>
<p>Data from 3,677 minors (< 20 years old, without disabilities) were extracted from the Korea Health Panel (2015) database.</p></sec>
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<title>Results</title>
<p>Minors with chronic conditions or diseases were older (juveniles, and adolescents; <italic>p</italic> < 0.001), and included a higher proportion of Medicaid recipients (<italic>p</italic> = 0.004), a higher use of hospital outpatient care (<italic>p</italic> < 0.001), and higher medical expenditure (<italic>p</italic> < 0.001) compared to minors without chronic conditions or diseases. Boys were more likely to have a chronic condition or disease than girls (<italic>p</italic> = 0.036). Adolescents and juveniles were more likely than infants to have a chronic condition or disease (<italic>p</italic> = 0.001). Medicaid recipients were more likely to have a chronic condition or disease than those who were not Medicaid recipients (<italic>p</italic> = 0.008). Minors who had been hospital outpatients were more likely to have a chronic condition or disease, compared with minors who had not been an outpatient (<italic>p</italic> = 0.001). Having a chronic condition or disease, was a factor increasing medical expenditure (<italic>p</italic> = 0.001). Medical expenditure was higher in infants than in juveniles and adolescents (<italic>p</italic> = 0.001). Infants had higher rates of medical use when compared with juveniles and adolescents (<italic>p</italic> = 0.001).</p></sec>
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<title>Conclusion</title>
<p>These findings suggest that systematic health care management for minors with chronic conditions or diseases, is needed.</p></sec>
Citations
Citations to this article as recorded by
Household income and maternal education in early childhood and activity-limiting chronic health conditions in late childhood: findings from birth cohort studies from six countries Nicholas James Spencer, Johnny Ludvigsson, Yueyue You, Kate Francis, Yara Abu Awad, Wolfgang Markham, Tomas Faresjö, Jeremy Goldhaber-Fiebert, Pär Andersson White, Hein Raat, Fiona Mensah, Lise Gauvin, Jennifer J McGrath Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.2022; 76(11): 939. CrossRef