Andrea K. Morrison|Ruben Chanmugathas|Marilyn M. Schapira|Marc H. Gorelick|Raymond G. Hoffmann|David C. Brousseau
Caregiver Low Health Literacy and Nonurgent Use of the Pediatric Emergency Department for Febrile Illness
Medical College of Wisconsin|Medical College of Wisconsin|University of Pennsylvania|Children's Hospital of Wisconsin|Quantitative BioSciences|Medical College of Wisconsin
objective examine association caregiver health literacy likelihood nonurgent emergency department ed visit children presenting fever methods crosssectional study used newest vital sign assess health literacy caregivers accompanying children fever ed visit urgency determined resources utilized ed visit findings stratified race child age chisquare logistic regression analysis controlling race conducted determine association low health literacy ed visit urgency results total 299 caregivers completed study materials thirtynine percent ed visits fever nonurgent 63 caregivers low health literacy low health literacy associated higher proportion nonurgent ed visits fever 44 vs 31 odds ratio 18 95 confidence interval ci 11 29 low health literacy associated higher odds nonurgent visit white hispanic caregivers black caregivers regression analysis children 2 years old higher odds nonurgent visit caregivers low health literacy adjusted odds ratio 20 95 ci 11 41 relationship hold children 2 years old adjusted odds ratio 08 95 ci 04 18 conclusions nearly twothirds caregivers child ed fever low health literacy caregiver low health literacy associated nonurgent ed utilization fever children 2 years age future interventions could target health literacy skills regarding fever caregivers children 2 years