Clinic Attendance of Youth With Sickle Cell Disease on Hydroxyurea Treatment.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to describe rates of clinic attendance of youth with sickle cell disease prescribed hydroxyurea and examine potential demographic and medical factors related to consistent clinic attendance.

METHODS: Participants included 148 youth diagnosed with sickle cell disease and prescribed hydroxyurea during a single calendar year. Clinic attendance and potential demographic and medical factors related to attendance were extracted via systematic retrospective medical chart review.

RESULTS: Youth attended 90.3% of scheduled appointments and 85.1% of youth attended at least 80% of scheduled clinic appointments during the study window. Adjusting for other factors, multivariate analysis revealed families with fewer children in the household, families with private insurance, youth experiencing fever, and youth not experiencing pain during the calendar year were more likely to consistently attend clinic visits.

CONCLUSIONS: Adherence to clinic appointments is critical to optimizing health outcomes for youth with sickle cell disease and integral for adequate monitoring of youth prescribed hydroxyurea, in particular. Findings may aid providers in appropriately identifying possible barriers to clinic attendance to develop attendance promotion interventions.