To investigate the types of parental psychiatric and pain‐related (PR) conditions that are associated with inadequate management of children's health and medical needs.
The 1997–1998 Thomson/Medstat MarketScan claims and administrative dataset.
A cross‐sectional study that assessed the associations between parents' claims for psychiatric and PR conditions, and their children's well‐child care as well as emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations for conditions that can be treated effectively in outpatient settings (ambulatory care sensitive [ACS] conditions).
Claims were extracted for 258,313 children of ages 0–17 years and their parents, who had insurance coverage for a full 2‐year period.
Multiple parental psychiatric and PR diagnoses were associated with child ACS emergency services/hospitalizations. Maternal depression was negatively associated with a child having the recommended well‐child visits (odds ratio [OR]: 0.92, 95 percent confidence intervals [CI]: 0.84–0.99). The combined diagnoses of maternal depression and back pain was positively associated with a child having an ACS‐ED visit (OR: 1.64, 95 percent CI: 1.33–2.03) and a child having an ACS hospitalization (OR: 2.04, 95 percent CI: 1.34–3.09).
Pediatricians' ability to manage child health may be enhanced with coordinated management of parental psychopathology and PR health conditions.
