Frequency of outpatient visits, acute care visits (emergency department visits and hospital admissions) and visit diagnoses, by household food insecurity status among children and adolescents in Ontario, Canada
| Outcome | No. (%) of participants | p value* | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food-secure n = 27 105 | Marginally food-insecure n = 1952 | Moderately food-insecure n = 2348 | Severely food-insecure n = 916 | ||
| Mental or substance use disorder outpatient visit† | 2232 (8.2) | 236 (12.1) | 316 (13.5) | 134 (14.6) | < 0.001 |
| Mental or substance use disorder acute care visit† | 146 (0.5) | 11 (0.6) | 25 (1.1) | 12 (1.3) | < 0.001 |
| Any visit for mental disorder‡ | 1142 (4.2) | 103 (5.3) | 148 (6.3) | 55 (6.0) | < 0.001 |
| Psychotic disorder | 11 (0.0) | 0 | ≤ 5 | 0 | 0.76 |
| Mood or anxiety disorder | 864 (3.2) | 85 (4.4) | 113 (4.8) | 46 (5.0) | < 0.001 |
| Other mental disorder | 319 (1.2) | 22 (1.1) | 46 (2.0) | 14 (1.5) | 0.009 |
| Deliberate self-harm | 12 (0.0) | ≤ 5 | ≤ 5 | ≤ 5 | 0.106 |
| Any visit for substance use‡ | 41 (0.2) | ≤ 5 | 7 (0.3) | ≤ 5 | 0.106 |
| Any visit for neurodevelopmental disorder‡ | 1111 (4.1) | 127 (6.5) | 186 (7.9) | 87 (9.5) | < 0.001 |
| Any visit for social problems | 285 (1.1) | 30 (1.5) | 42 (1.8) | 13 (1.4) | 0.003 |