Premium
Healthcare use by children and young adults with cerebral palsy
Author(s) -
Carter Bethan,
Bennett C Verity,
Jones Hywel,
Bethel Jackie,
Perra Oliver,
Wang Ting,
Kemp Alison
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
developmental medicine and child neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.658
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1469-8749
pISSN - 0012-1622
DOI - 10.1111/dmcn.14536
Subject(s) - medicine , cerebral palsy , attendance , pediatrics , cohort , health care , population , record linkage , cohort study , emergency medicine , physical therapy , environmental health , economics , economic growth
Aim To link routinely collected health data to a cerebral palsy (CP) register in order to enable analysis of healthcare use by severity of CP. Method The Northern Ireland Cerebral Palsy Register was linked to hospital data. Data for those on the CP register born between 1st January 1981 and 31st December 2009 and alive in 2004 were extracted, forming a CP cohort ( n =1684; 57% males, 43% females; aged 0–24y). Frequencies of healthcare events, and the reasons for them, were reported according to CP severity and compared with those without CP who had had at least one hospital attendance in Northern Ireland within the study period. Results Cases of CP represented 0.3% of the Northern Ireland population aged 0 to 24 years but accounted for 1.6% of hospital admissions and 1.6% of outpatient appointments. They had higher rates of elective admissions and multi‐day hospital stays than the general population. Respiratory conditions were the most common reason for emergency admissions. Those with most severe CP were 10 times more likely to be admitted, and four times more likely to attend outpatients, than those with mild CP. Interpretation Linkage between a register and routinely collected healthcare data provided a confirmed cohort of cases of CP that was sufficiently detailed to analyse healthcare use by disease severity.