Number of Siblings, Parental Age, and Return Visit to Pediatrics Emergency Department Security Forces Hospital-Riyadh-Saudi Arabia

Overcrowding in the emergency department (ED) affects the quality of care and impaired decision-making, which results in poor outcomes and increased patient morbidity and mortality. EDs in Saudi Arabia face the problems above, and the literature suggests that nonemergent patients can contribute to significant delays in Eds. This is a one-center, retrospective, cross-sectional study aimed at understanding the factors influencing revisits of children, aged one year and below to the emergency department. The study was conducted in Pediatrics Emergency at the Security Forces Hospital in Riyadh from February 2024 to August 2024. A total of 380 patients were seen in pediatrics Emergency as a revisiting visit. The mean age of the study population was 6.0211 (Std.Deviation 3.43951). In the study group, males comprised 201 (52.9%) patients, and females comprised 179 (47.1%) patients. Age distribution showed patients less than three months old were 88 (23.2%), and 3 to 12 months old were 292 (76.8%). Mothers of age less than 25 years old were 38 (10%) mothers, 25 to 35 years old were 207 (54.5%) mothers and more than 35 years old were 88 (23.2%) mothers. There is missing data regarding the mother’s age in 47 (12.4%). Fathers of age less than 25 years old were 9 (2.4%) fathers, 25 to 35 years old were 178 (46.8%) fathers and more than 35 years old were 156 (41.1%) fathers. The father’s age was missing in 37 (9.7%). Regarding sibling distribution, results showed zero to one sibling in 220 (57.9%) families, 2 to 5 siblings in 135 (35.5%), and more than five siblings in 25 (6.6%) families. In conclusion, our study showed that small families and younger parents had more frequent return visits to the emergency department despite the statistically insignificant p-value.