Context: The differential allocation of medical resources to adult patients according to characteristics such as race, gender, and insurance status raises the serious concern that such issues apply to critically ill children as well.
Objective: This study examined whether medical resources and outcomes for children admitted to pediatric intensive care units differed according to race, gender, or insurance status.
Design: An observational analysis was conducted with use of prospectively collected data from a multicenter cohort. Data were collected on 5,749 consecutive admissions for children from three pediatric intensive care units located in large urban children's hospitals.
Participants: Children aged </=18 years admitted over an 18-month period beginning in June 1996 formed the study sample.
Main outcome measures: Hospital mortality, length of hospital stay, and overall resource use were examined in relation to severity of illness. Standardized ratios were formed with generalized regression analyses that included the Pediatric Index of Mortality for risk adjustment.
Results: After adjustment for differences in illness severity, standardized mortality ratios and overall resource use were similar with regard to race, gender, and insurance status, but uninsured children had significantly shorter lengths of stay in the pediatric intensive care unit. Uninsured children also had significantly greater physiologic derangement on admission (mortality probability, 8.1%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 6.2-10.0) than did publicly insured (3.6%; 95% CI, 3.2-4.0) and commercially insured patients (3.7%; 95% CI, 3.3-4.1). Consistent with greater physiologic derangement, hospital mortality was higher among uninsured children than insured children.
Conclusions: Risk-adjusted mortality and resource use for critically ill children did not differ according to race, gender, or insurance status. Policies to expand health insurance to children appear more likely to affect physiologic derangement on admission rather than technical quality of care in the pediatric intensive care unit setting.