Comorbidity patterns and socioeconomic inequalities in children under 15 with medical complexity: a population-based study

Table 2 Socioeconomic characteristics of each comorbidity cluster among the CMC and association between SEP by cluster, in Catalonia, 2016

	Oncology^a					Neurodevelopment^a					Congenital and perinatal^a					Respiratory^a
	N = 2141 36.0%					N = 818 13.7%					N = 1177 19.8%					N = 1814 30.5%
	Boys		Girls		P Value	Boys		Girls		P Value	Boys		Girls		P Value	Boys		Girls		P Value
	N	%	N	%	P Value	N	%	N	%	P Value	N	%	N	%	P Value	N	%	N	%	P Value
Frequency	1200	56.1	941	44.0	0.004	501	61.3	317	38.8	0.083	668	56.8	509	43.3	0.182	1110	61.2	704	38.8	0.005
Ages (years)^b
< 2	8	0.7	7	0.7	0.214^π	38	7.6	23	7.3	0.126^π	552	82.6	400	78.6	0.195^π	280	25.2	174	24.7	0.569^π
2 to 4	95	7.9	84	8.9		145	28.9	86	27.1		109	16.3	106	20.8		566	51.0	361	51.3
5 to 11	729	60.8	529	56.2		258	51.5	151	47.6		7	1.1	3	0.6		262	23.6	165	23.4
12 to 14	368	30.7	321	34.1		60	12.0	57	18.0		0	0.0	0	0.0		2	0.2	4	0.6
SEP^b
High	159	13.3	134	14.3	0.749^π	69	13.9	40	12.8	0.297^π	69	10.4	55	10.9	0.534^π	143	12.9	88	12.5	0.9443^π
Middle	664	55.4	507	54.2		299	60.2	176	56.2		408	61.3	323	63.7		658	59.3	422	60.1
Low	375	31.3	295	31.5		129	26.0	97	31.0		189	28.4	129	25.4		308	27.8	192	27.4
SEP OR (CI)^d
High	1		1			1		1			1		1			1		1
Middle	1.3 (1.2–1.5)		1.3 (1.1–1.5)			1.6 (1.3–2.0)		1.3 (1.0–1.7)			1.3 (1.1–1.6)		1.5 (1.3–1.9)			1.4 (1.2–1.6)		1.5 (1.2–1.7)
Low	1.9 (1.6–2.3)		2.0 (1.7–2.5)			2.3 (1.7–3.1)		1.8 (1.2–2.6)			1.7 (1.3–2.3)		2.1 (1.5–2.8)			2.0 (1.7–2.5)		2.0 (1.6–2.6)
GMA^c (score)	16.8 (15.2, 20.6)		16.9 (15.1–20-6)		0.555^γ	20.9 (16.8, 26.2)		19.5 (16.2–26.5)		0.182^γ	17.6 (15.4, 21.5)		16.9 (15.2, 20.2)		0.058^γ	15.8 (14.7, 17.4)		15.8 (14.7, 17.4)		0.821^γ

Note: GMA Morbidity Adjusted Group, SEP Socioeconomic Position. Low (no member of the household employed, receiving welfare support from the government, and an income < 18,000€/year), middle (employed and an income < 18,000€/year), high (employed and an income > 18,000€/year)
^a Proportion of each comorbidity class (%): (num of individuals in class/num individuals in all CMC)*100
^bValues are absolute numbers and percentages in each class for categorical variables. ^cMedian (IQR) for continuous variables
P Value for categorical variables: π χ² Test. For continuous variables: γ Mann-Whitney U-test. α = 0.005
^dOdds Ratio, adjusted by age. CI, 95% confidence intervals of the odds ratio

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