This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related articles  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Child Development  • Pediatrics, Other  • Palliative Care, Dying, and Bereavement Theme Issue  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Savithri Nageswaran, MD, MPH

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2009;163(1):49-54.

Objectives  To describe (1) the subpopulation of children with special health care needs (CSHCN) in need of respite care and (2) the factors associated with unmet respite care needs.

Design  Cross-sectional study using the 2001 National Survey of Children With Special Health Care Needs.

Setting  The United States.

Participants  Caregivers of CSHCN.

Main Outcome Measures  We determined the association of sociodemographic factors and health status of CSHCN with need for respite care and unmet needs for respite care.

Results  Of the 38 831 respondents, 3178 (8.8%) reported need for respite care in the prior 12 months. The CSHCN who were young and uninsured/had insurance gaps or had public insurance and those with functional limitations and unstable health conditions were more likely to need respite care. Twenty-four percent of CSHCN who needed respite care did not receive such services. In multivariate analysis, higher maternal education (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 1.6 for more than high school education compared with high school education or less), some and severe functional limitations (AORs, 2.5 and 5.6, respectively, compared with no limitation), and unstable health condition (AOR, 2.3 compared with stable condition) were associated with greater unmet respite care needs. The CSHCN with public insurance were half as likely and CSHCN with private insurance were as likely to report unmet respite care needs as those who were uninsured/with insurance gaps.

Conclusions  Respite care needs of CSHCN are frequently unmet. Furthermore, strategies are needed to improve access to respite care for families of CSHCN.

Author Affiliations: Departments of Pediatrics and Social Sciences and Health Policy, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati     What's this?

RELATED ARTICLES

This Month in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2009;163(1):5.
FULL TEXT  

Respite Care: An Essential Yet Unmet Need for Families With Children With Special Health Care Needs
John M. Neff
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2009;163(1):89-90.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Respite Care: An Essential Yet Unmet Need for Families With Children With Special Health Care Needs
Neff
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2009;163:89-90.
FULL TEXT