We analyze drive times to pediatric inpatient and intensive care services in the US according to Child Opportunity Index (COI), racial/ethnic composition, and urbanicity.

Geospatial information system analyses delineated drive-time catchments of 0–30, 31–60, 61–120 and 120–240 minutes around hospitals with ≥5 inpatient pediatric and pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) beds. For each catchment, population-weighted COI, percent pediatric population of underrepresented races and ethnicities (%UR), and urbanicity were calculated and compared between the four drive-time catchments and for >60 versus ≤60-minute drive-times. Prevalence ratios (PR) were calculated for >60 versus ≤60-minute drive-times to compare the prevalence of longer drive-times for catchments with lower COI and lower %UR (vs higher), and rural versus urban areas.

Overall, 8.1% and 20.5% of children reside >60-minutes from pediatric and PICU services. Catchments within 60-minutes of inpatient or PICU services had higher COI (4.8, [95% CI 3.2, 6.5] and 6.1 [7.7, 4.5] respectively) compared with those >60-minutes. Very low quintile COI catchments (vs very high) were more likely to be >60-minutes from pediatric inpatient care (PR 2.89 [2.30, 3.61]) and PICU (PR 2.48 [1.92, 3.20]). %UR was 2.7% higher in ≤60-minute drive-time catchments (95% CI 0.1, 5.23, P = 0.043) versus those >60-minutes. Greater prevalence of >60-minute drive-times was seen in catchments with a lower %UR (vs higher) and for rural (vs urban) catchments for pediatric and PICU services.

Children living further from pediatric care tend to have less resources and reside in rural areas. These data inform public health solutions for equitable resource distribution as care consolidates.