Association Between Centralization and Outcome for Children Admitted to Intensive Care in Australia and New Zealand: A Population-Based Cohort Study*

Objectives: To describe regional differences and change over time in the degree of centralization of pediatric intensive care in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) and to compare the characteristics and ICU mortality of children admitted to specialist PICUs and general ICUs (GICUs). Design: A retrospective cohort study using registry data for two epochs of ICU admissions, 2003–2005 and 2016–2018. Setting: Population-based study in ANZ. Patients: A total of 43,256 admissions of children aged younger than 16 years admitted to an ICU in ANZ were included. Infants aged younger than 28 days without cardiac conditions were excluded. Interventions: None. Measurements and Main Results: The primary outcome was risk-adjusted ICU mortality. Logistic regression was used to investigate the association of mortality with the exposure to ICU type, epoch, and their interaction. Compared with children admitted to GICUs, children admitted to PICUs were younger (median 25 vs 47 mo; p
Source: Pediatric Critical Care Medicine - Category: Pediatrics Tags: Clinical Investigations Source Type: research