Damien Byas
Center for Healthcare Research, USA
Title: Examining the association between healthcare quality and health status among American children
Biography
Biography: Damien Byas
Abstract
Statement of the Problem: American children are diagnosed with serious acute and chronic disease types in increasingly high
numbers. It is therefore imperative to investigate many existing children’s health outcomes in the United States which may
be interrelated due to the lack of healthcare quality, inaccessibility to quality care, and other factors associated with potential
children’s health outcomes. This study examined inpatient admissions for pediatric patients using the Kids´ Inpatient Database
(KID), Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ, 2014).
Orientation: A large randomly drawn sample (N=524,581) of boys (n=244,553) and girls (n=280,028) ages 5 to 12, was
examined in this research study to test for the association between disease prevalence and healthcare quality. The Pearson Chi
Square test was applied to measure for significant variable relationships in this research study.
Findings: The results of this study found that there was a statistically significant association between healthcare quality and
disease prevalence (p<.001). Other significant associations were also found as a result of the Chi square analysis.
Conclusion & Significance: The research findings substantiate the importance of the quality of healthcare and healthcare
services delivery. Strong associations were found when one’s socio-economic status was examined with the prevalence for
preventable diseases. The outcome of this research study provides support for improved nationwide efforts to improve
healthcare quality to promote gender and ethnic equality in order to eliminate children’s health disparities.