The association between deprivation levels, attendance rate and triage category of children attending a children's accident and emergency department

Objective-To determine the relation between deprivation category, triage sc ore and accident and emergency (A&E) attendance for children under the age of 13. Design-Retrospective study of all children attending an A&E department over one year. Setting-A paediatric teaching hospital in Edinburgh. Subjects-All children attending the A&E department who had a postcode and a triage score documented on attendance. The postcode was used to determine the deprivation category and the triage scored the severity of illness or i njury. Main outcome measure-The relation between deprivation category, triage scor e and frequency of attendance. Results-There is a trend towards increased attendance in all triage categor ies for deprivation categories 6 and 7. Conclusions-Attendance at A&E is not only related to severity of injury but also to deprivation category. The reason why people from disadvantaged are as attend more frequently needs further evaluation.