Abstract

Objective—To determine the relation between deprivation category, triage score and accident and emergency (A&E) attendance for children under the age of 13.

Design—Retrospective study of all children attending an A&E department over one year.

Setting—A paediatric teaching hospital in Edinburgh.

Subjects—All children attending the A&E department who had a postcode and a triage score documented on attendance. The postcode was used to determine the deprivation category and the triage scored the severity of illness or injury.

Main outcome measure—The relation between deprivation category, triage score and frequency of attendance.

Results—There is a trend towards increased attendance in all triage categories for deprivation categories 6 and 7.

Conclusions—Attendance at A&E is not only related to severity of injury but also to deprivation category. The reason why people from disadvantaged areas attend more frequently needs further evaluation.