Sociodemographic Influences of Emergency Department Care for Anxiety Disorders

This study examines variations in content of care for anxiety-related emergency department (ED) visits in the USA across various sociodemographic strata. The 2009–2012 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey was used to identify all visits to general hospital EDs in which an anxiety diagnosis was recorded ( n = 1930). Content and equitability of care was assessed utilizing logistic regression models. There were an estimated 1,856,000 ED visits with anxiety-related discharge diagnoses in the USA annually. Content of care and disposition varied by age, race/ethnicity, and insurance status. Visits by Medicaid patients were more likely than visits by privately insured patients to include a toxicology screen (OR = 1.67, p