Observational studyInternational journal for equity in health2015
Travel distance and sociodemographic correlates of potentially avoidable emergency department visits in California, 2006-2010: an observational study.
Observational study in International journal for equity in health, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Distances to emergency departments and non-urgent utilization of medical services: a systematic review.Global health action · 2024Pooled it
- Determinants of long-term quality of life in nasopharyngeal carcinoma survivors: the roles of household income and performance status.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2026Article
- Role of distance in the utilization of emergency departments for non-traumatic dental conditions in Maryland, USA, 2017-2021.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Article
- Identification of low-acuity attendances in routine clinical information documented in German Emergency Departments.BMC emergency medicine · 2023Article
- Decreasing Racial Disparities in Preventable Emergency Department Visits Through Hospital Health Information Technology Patient Engagement Functionalities.Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association · 2023Observational
- An integrative review of adult patient-reported reasons for non-urgent use of the emergency department.BMC nursing · 2023Article
- Geographic proximity to primary care providers as a risk-assessment criterion for quality performance measures.PloS one · 2022Article
- Association Between Household Income and Self-Perceived Health Status and Poor Mental and Physical Health Among Cancer Survivors.Frontiers in public health · 2021Article
- Potentially Preventable Spending Among High-Cost Medicare Patients: Implications for Healthcare Delivery.Journal of general internal medicine · 2020Article
- Toward Structural Competency in Emergency Medical Education.AEM education and training · 2020Article
- Socioeconomic disadvantage as a driver of non-urgent emergency department presentations: A retrospective data analysis.PloS one · 2020Article
- Characteristics of Non-Emergent Visits in Emergency Departments: Profiles and Longitudinal Pattern Changes in Taiwan, 2000-2010.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Article
- Geographic Expansion of Federally Qualified Health Centers 2007-2014.The Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association · 2019Article
- Neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics, healthcare spatial access, and emergency department visits for ambulatory care sensitive conditions for elderly.Preventive medicine reports · 2018Article
- Patients' and Clinicians' Perceptions of Antibiotic Prescribing for Upper Respiratory Infections in the Acute Care Setting.Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making · 2018Article
- The Impact of Hospital Volume on Racial Differences in Complications, Readmissions, and Emergency Department Visits Following Total Joint Arthroplasty.The Journal of arthroplasty · 2018Article
- The effect on the patient flow in local health care services after closing a suburban primary care emergency department: a controlled longitudinal follow-up study.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2017Observational
- Reasons for attending a general emergency outpatient clinic versus a regular general practitioner - a survey among immigrant and native walk-in patients in Oslo, Norway.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2017Article
- Preventable Emergency Department Visits of Patients with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias During the COVID-19 Pandemic by Hospital-Based Health Information Exchange.Gerontology & geriatric medicineArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionUse of the hospital emergency department (ED) for medical conditions not likely to require immediate treatment is a controversial topic. It has been faulted for ED overcrowding, increased expenditures, and decreased quality of care. On the other hand, such avoidable ED utilization may be a manifestation of barriers to primary care access.
methodsA random 10% subsample of all ED visits with unmasked variables, or approximately 7.2% of all ED visits in California between 2006 and 2010 are used in the analysis. Using panel data methods, we employ linear probability and fractional probit models with hospital fixed effects to analyze the associations between avoidable ED utilization in California and observable patient characteristics. We also test whether shorter estimated road distances to the hospital ED are correlated with non-urgent ED utilization, as defined by the New York University ED Algorithm. We then investigate whether proximity of a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) is correlated with reductions in non-urgent ED utilization among Medicaid patients.
resultsWe find that relative to the reference group of adults aged 35-64, younger patients generally have higher scores for non-urgent conditions and lower scores for urgent conditions. However, elderly patients (≥65) use the ED for conditions more likely to be urgent. Relative to male and white patients, respectively, female patients and all identified racial and ethnic minorities use the ED for conditions more likely to be non-urgent. Patients with non-commercial insurance coverage also use the ED for conditions more likely to be non-urgent. Medicare and Medicaid patients who live closer to the hospital ED have higher probability scores for non-emergent visits. However, among Medicaid enrollees, those who live in zip codes with an FQHC within 0.5 mile of the zip code population centroid visit the ED for medical conditions less likely to be non-emergent.
conclusionsThese patterns of ED utilization point to potential barriers to care among historically vulnerable groups, observable even when using rough estimates of travel distances and avoidable ED utilization.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.