Use of health care by chronically ill children in rural Florida.

Factors that influence ambulatory care (visits to physicians and emergency rooms) and use of hospitals were investigated in a population of chronically ill, rural, low-income children. Rates of use for this population--a stratified random sample of 672 Medicaid-eligible children under age 17 years who lived in a 24-county area of northern Florida--were similar to those in a national study of chronically ill children. Further, the rates were shown to increase significantly as limitations to activity increased. Younger children and white children were also shown to have significantly higher use rates than older children and black children. Despite these associations, and those related to primary diagnoses, none of the analyses were able to explain much of the variation in the use of health care resources. The findings were similar to those of other studies; thus, the identification of the relatively small numbers of children who consume relatively large amounts of health care remains elusive.