Poster #27 - Children with Neurodevelopmental Disabilities: Identification and Patterns of Health Services Using Canadian Administrative Data

• In Event: 2-001 - Poster Session 1 during Breakfast

Abstract

Children with ‘neurodevelopmental disorders and disabilities’ (NDD/D) or children with ‘neurodisability’ have neurological conditions that are associated with functional impairment. Linked administrative health data are increasingly becoming a focus for research to study child disability. However, existing work in this area has used generic lists of chronic health conditions and has not specifically focused on NDD/D because of the lack of functional impairment information in administrative data. The present study is the first, to our knowledge, to use an approach that harmonizes diagnosis with functional domains to identify children with NDD/D and to examine their healthcare service use as compared to children without NDD/D in linked administrative health data.

METHODS The sample included children aged 6 to 10 years (n=183 041), who were registered with the British Columbia Medical Services Plan. Diagnostic information was used for the identification and classification of NDD/D in six functional domains. Healthcare service utilization included outcomes based on physician claims, prescription medication use, and hospitalization.

RESULTS Overall, 8.3% of children were identified with NDD/D. Children with NDD/D had higher healthcare service use rates than those without NDD/D. Effect sizes were: very large for the number of days on prescription medication; large for the types of different medications prescribed; medium for the number of physician visits, different specialists visited, number of different medications, and ever hospitalized; and small for the number of lab visits, X-ray visits, and number of days hospitalized.

CONCLUSIONS The findings have research implications for the use of administrative data to study child disability. In addition, this study yields policy implications for child services and resource planning. Given the high use of psychostimulants, specialized services for both NDD/D and mental health conditions may be the most needed services for children with NDD/D. Future studies may examine patterns of physician behaviours and costs attributable to healthcare service use for children with NDD/D.

Authors

• Dafna Kohen, Statistics Canada/University of Ottawa
  Presenting Author

• Rubab Arim, Statistics Canada

• Anton Miller, BC Women and Children's Hospital/UBC

• Anne Guevremont, Statistics Canada

• Lucy Lach, McGill University

• Jamie Brehaut, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute/University of Ottawa