Some 1 million kids without pediatricians

LEBANON, N.H., Dec. 21 (UPI) -- An estimated 1 million U.S. children live without access to a nearby pediatrician, researchers at Dartmouth University say.

Dr. Scott A. Shipman, Jia Lan, Chiang-hua Chang of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice in Lebanon, N.H., and David C. Goodman of the Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, N.H., say almost 1 million children in 47 states live without any primary care physician for children.

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, finds nearly 15 million children -- 20 percent of the U.S. child population -- live in local markets with less than 710 children per child physician compared to the average of 141 child physicians per 100 000 children.

Another 15 million lived in areas with more than 4,400 children per child physician -- average of 22 child physicians per 100,000 children -- the researchers say.

The data was from 1996 and 2006, when general pediatrician and family physician workforces expanded by 51 percent and 35 percent, respectively, whereas the child population increased by only 9 percent, the researchers say.

"Undirected growth of the aggregate child physician workforce has resulted in profound maldistribution of physician resources," the researchers say in a statement. "Accountability for public funding of physician training should include efforts to develop, to use, and to evaluate policies aimed at reducing disparities in geographic access to primary care physicians for children."