Pediatric chronic patients at outpatient clinics: a study in a Latin American University Hospital

Abstract Objective To describe the characteristics of children and adolescentes with chronic diseases of outpatient clinics at a tertiary university hospital. Methods A cross-sectional study was performed with 16,237 patients with chronic diseases followed-up in one year. The data were collected through the electronic system, according to the number of physician appointments in 23 pediatric specialties. Patients were divided in two groups: children (0–9 years) and adolescents (10–19 years). Early (10–14 years) and late (15–19 years) adolescent groups were also analyzed. Results Of the total sample, 56% were children and 46% were adolescents. The frequencies of following pediatric specialties were significantly higher in adolescents when compared with children: cardiology, endocrinology, hematology, nephrology/renal transplantation, neurology, nutrology, oncology, palliative and pain care, psychiatry, and rheumatology ( p vs . 17%, p vs . 11%, p vs . 2%, p vs . 0.6%, p  = 0.002) were significantly lower in adolescents than in children. However, the number of physician appointments (≥13) per patient was also higher in the adolescent group (5% vs . 6%, p  = 0.018). Further analysis comparison between early and late adolescents revealed that the first group had significantly more physician appointments (35% vs . 32%, p  = 0.025), and required more than two pediatric specialties (22% vs . 21%, p  = 0.047). Likewise, the frequencies of emergency service visits (19% vs . 14%, p vs . 10%, p  = 0.035) were higher in early adolescents. Conclusions This study evaluated a large population in a Latin American hospital and suggested that early adolescents with chronic diseases required many appointments, multiple specialties and hospital admissions.