Introduction:

the aim of our study was to analyse the influence of family socioeconomic and psychological factors on the demand and use of health resources in paediatric consultations in Primary Care.

Methods:

descriptive observational study carried out using questionnaires collected over a period of 1 year. Questionnaires were collected from children between 1 month and 14 years old, belonging to 2 urban Primary Care clinics in Madrid. The raw data was analysed, and comparisons between groups and multivariate analysis were performed.

Results:

we compared 434 questionnaires. The number of total consultations was higher in younger patients (p = 0.001) and in those whose parents presented high levels of anxiety (p = 0.001). Families with all their members in unemployed presented anxiety (OR: 5.85; IC 95: 2.567-13.341; p <0.0001) and depression (OR: 6.250; IC 95: 2.647-14.760; p <0.0001) levels higher than the rest. Laboratory and imaging test were higher in children with chronic disease (OR: 3.84; IC 95: 2.09-7.07; p <0.0001) and high level of anxiety in parents (OR: 2.78; IC 95: 1.46-5.28; p = 0.02). Drugs use was higher in children with chronic disease (OR: 3.15; IC 95: 1.60-6.19; p = 0.001) and lower in older children (OR: 0.927; IC 95: 0.87-0.98; p = 0.014).

Conclusions:

hyper-attendance and drug consumption in general and antibiotics in particular, as well as the request for imaging and laboratory test, is directly related to the high level of anxiety in the parents and the presence of chronic disease in children and inversely with the age. It would be advisable to detect and, if possible, intervene in cases of high parental anxiety in order to try to reduce the consumption of health resources.

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