Do rural and urban children have comparable asthma care utilization?

This study compares asthma-related health care visits and drug therapy for rural and nonrural Kentucky children with Medicaid health insurance in 1995 . The 8,634 children with asthma had a mean age of 5.7 years. Ninety-two pe rcent made at feast one asthma office visit, and 13 percent were hospitaliz ed. The urban and rural patterns of care for childhood asthma varied in som e potentially important ways. Urban children were twice as likely as rural children to see an asthma specialist (5 percent vs. 2.5 percent, P <0.05) 2 .7 times as likely to receive asthma care in an emergency department (f19 p ercent vs. 7 percent, P <0.01) and 1.4 times as likely to receive oral ster oids (16 percent vs. 12 percent, P=0.04). If given inhaled anti-inflammator y medication, rural children were more likely to receive inhaled steroids w hile urban children were more likely to receive cromoglycates.