Hospital readmissions for ambulatory care sensitive conditions in children under 5 years old in the Unified Health System

Abstract This study aimed to analyze readmissions for Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions (ACSC) in children under 5 years in the Unified Health System (SUS) between the years 2009 and 2015, to identify the main cause groups and associated factors. This retrospective cohort study used data from the National Health Database, an individual-centered database constructed from deterministic-probabilistic data matching from the main information systems of SUS. The study population consisted of children under 5 years old hospitalized within the SUS with a primary diagnosis listed in the Brazilian Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions. Sociodemographic, clinical, hospitalization-related, and hospital service-related factors were considered. Factors associated with readmission included being an infant (between 28 days and 2 years of age), being male, having been initially hospitalized in a private or non-profit institution, residing in the same municipality as the hospital, and the initial hospitalization cause being related to epilepsy, asthma, nutritional deficiencies, pulmonary diseases, bacterial pneumonia and nose, ear, and throat infections.