Guideline-informed care among Medicaid-enrolled children with food allergy

To describe food allergy (FA)-related service utilization and identify factors associated with guideline-informed care among Medicaid-enrolled US children with FA. Retrospective cohort study. We used the 2012 Medicaid Analytic eXtract files to identify children with an FA diagnosis. FA-related servi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American journal of managed care 2020-12, Vol.26 (12), p.505-512
Main Authors: Kanaley, Madeleine K, Dyer, Ashley A, Negris, Olivia R, Fierstein, Jamie L, Ciaccio, Christina E, Gupta, Ruchi S, Bilaver, Lucy A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Children & youth
Diagnostic tests
Emergency medical care
Food allergies
Health administration
Medicaid
Regression analysis
Socioeconomic factors
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Summary:To describe food allergy (FA)-related service utilization and identify factors associated with guideline-informed care among Medicaid-enrolled US children with FA. Retrospective cohort study. We used the 2012 Medicaid Analytic eXtract files to identify children with an FA diagnosis. FA-related services including outpatient allergist visits, emergency department (ED) visits, epinephrine autoinjector prescription fills, and diagnostic testing were identified. Factors associated with services were assessed using logistic regression. Kaplan-Meier survival curves evaluated the time to guideline-informed care, and proportional hazard models determined associated socioeconomic characteristics. There were 64,276 Medicaid-enrolled children younger than 20 years who had at least 1 claim with an FA diagnosis in 2012. Minority children and those living in a high-poverty county were less likely to have visited an allergist for FA or received diagnostic testing but more likely to have an FA-related ED visit compared with White children and those not living in a high-poverty county. Survival analyses found that of children seen for FA-related primary care or an ED visit, rates of allergist follow-up visits were 21% and 17%, respectively, and rates of epinephrine autoinjector prescription fills were 39% and 41%. Significant associations with guideline-informed care were found by race/ethnicity, dense population, and high-poverty counties. Although guideline-informed FA care includes follow-up with an allergist and epinephrine autoinjector prescription, this study finds low probabilities of timely service utilization after medical visits, as well as socioeconomic disparities in care.
ISSN:1088-0224
1936-2692
DOI:10.37765/ajmc.2020.88538