The ill child in the emergency department and the accompanying people: a cross-sectional analysis.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to investigate relationship between the number of the family members visiting the emergency department with pediatric patients and patient characteristics such as age, insurance status, traumatic complaint, whether event was acute or not, and to estimate number of family members who had any time off from their work among this group. METHOD: A prospective cross-sectional study was performed using a questionnaire which included demographic characteristics, number of family members, number of family members who were taking hours off from work. In the 15-day period (1-15 August 2003), all persons who accompanied the children to the university-based PED (annual volume: 18,000) were asked to participate in the study. RESULTS: A total of 575 persons accompanied the 300 children seen in PED (1.92 persons per child). Number of persons accompanying the children was found to be inversely related to age (Pearson correlation, P = 0.000). Seventy-nine children (32.1%) of those with acute complaints had family members who took time off from their work, whereas 29 (53.70%) of those with chronic illnesses had such family members (P = 0.003). The mean number of family members of children who had been referred from another healthcare institution was 2.06 +/- 0.77, whereas the mean number of family members of patients who presented directly to the PED was 1.85 +/- 0.63 (P = 0.013). The mean number of family members of patients who had insurance for their child and those who do not have were 1.84 +/- 0.66 and 2.06 +/- 0.71, respectively, (P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Numbers of family members were positively associated with a history of referral to another institution for the same reason, and inversely related to the parents' age and insurance status.