Researchers from the University of California San Francisco recently published a new study titled "Neighborhood Child Opportunity and Individual-Level Pediatric Care Use and Diagnoses," in Pediatrics. It is the study the first to examine the association between child neighborhood opportunity and individual-level pediatric care use. The cross-sectional study of a sample of San Francisco children found that child neighborhood opportunity, measured by the Child Opportunity Index, was significantly associated with frequent acute health care visits and diagnoses, independent of patient characteristics and neighborhood income. Lead author Dr. Ellen Kersten presents the findings in this video abstract. The study concludes that the Child Opportunity Index could be an effective tool for identifying neighborhood factors other than income that may affect child health.
