Rural-Urban Trends in Pediatric Emergency Department Visits for Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions from 2016-2019
Link
Date
04/2026
Description
This brief describes trends of emergency department (ED) visits for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs) among children. Using discharge data from 2016 to 2019, the analysis focuses on trends along the rural-urban continuum by demographics, census region, neighborhood conditions related to income, education, employment, and housing, and other factors.
Key Findings:
- Overall, the prevalence of pediatric ED visits for ACSCs dropped from 2,269 visits per 100,000 children in 2016 to 2,002 per 100,000 children in 2019, which corresponds to an annual percentage change of –4.2%.
- Pediatric ED visits dropped by 4.9% annually for urinary tract infections, and 6.5% for asthma but remained unchanged for gastroenteritis. Conversely, the ED visit prevalence for diabetes increased by 17.3%.
- Examining rural-urban classifications, pediatric ACSC visits dropped the most in large fringe metropolitan areas (-5.6%).
- Diabetes was the only condition for which children in non-core counties had higher ED visit prevalence than children in large central metropolitan counties. The prevalence of diabetes ED visits also doubled between 2016 and 2019 among children in non-core counties.
- ACSC ED visit rates were higher in the South census region and non-Medicaid expansion states.
Center
Southwest Rural Health Research Center
Authors
Marvellous Akinlotan, Nima Khodakarami, Alva Ferdinand