US Outpatient Office Visits for Bronchiolitis, 1993–2004

ObjectiveTo describe the clinical epidemiology of US outpatient visits for children younger than 2 years with bronchiolitis.MethodsData were obtained from the 1993–2004 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. Visits had ICD-9 code 466 and were restricted to patients younger than 2 years. National estimates were obtained by using assigned patient visit weights and reported with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) calculated by the relative standard error of the estimate; analysis included the χ2 test.ResultsFrom 1993 to 2004, bronchiolitis accounted for approximately 198 outpatient visits representing 8.75 million visits for children younger than 2 years. Among this same age group, the overall rate was 103 (95% CI, 83, 124) per 1000 US children and 17 (95% CI, 13, 20) per 1000 visits. When we compared bronchiolitis visits to all nonbronchiolitis visits, we found that those with bronchiolitis were less likely to be from the Northeast (12% vs 22%; P < .05) and more likely to be admitted to the hospital (2% vs 0.4%; P < .05). Fifty-two percent were prescribed albuterol; diagnostic tests were uncommon.ConclusionsThe annual number of outpatient office visits for bronchiolitis among children younger than 2 years has remained stable over the last decade but has averaged almost 750 000 visits per year. More than half of primary care providers are prescribing medications to children with bronchiolitis.