US outpatient office visits for bronchiolitis, 1993-2004.

OBJECTIVE

To describe the clinical epidemiology of US outpatient visits for children younger than 2 years with bronchiolitis.

METHODS

Data were obtained from the 1993-2004 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. Visits had ICD-9 code 466 and were restricted to patients younger than 2 years. National estimates were obtained by using assigned patient visit weights and reported with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) calculated by the relative standard error of the estimate; analysis included the chi2 test.

RESULTS

From 1993 to 2004, bronchiolitis accounted for approximately 198 outpatient visits representing 8.75 million visits for children younger than 2 years. Among this same age group, the overall rate was 103 (95% CI, 83, 124) per 1000 US children and 17 (95% CI, 13, 20) per 1000 visits. When we compared bronchiolitis visits to all nonbronchiolitis visits, we found that those with bronchiolitis were less likely to be from the Northeast (12% vs 22%; P < .05) and more likely to be admitted to the hospital (2% vs 0.4%; P < .05). Fifty-two percent were prescribed albuterol; diagnostic tests were uncommon.

CONCLUSIONS

The annual number of outpatient office visits for bronchiolitis among children younger than 2 years has remained stable over the last decade but has averaged almost 750,000 visits per year. More than half of primary care providers are prescribing medications to children with bronchiolitis.