Predicting additional care in young children with neurodevelopmental disability: a systematic literature review

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Medicine
• Developmental Disabilities
• Healthcare Assessment

Background:

• Children with developmental disabilities often have associated impairments requiring lifelong care.
• Accurate assessment is crucial for diagnosis and informing parents about future care requirements.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review literature for instruments classifying the type and amount of future additional care needs for children.
• To identify existing measurement tools for assessing care needs in developmental disabilities.

Main Methods:

• A systematic literature search was conducted in the Medline database from January 1966 to June 2005.
• The search focused on instruments designed to classify expected future additional care needs.

Main Results:

• Seven standardized measurement instruments were identified, but all assessed current, not future, additional care needs.
• No instruments were found that specifically address the prediction of future care requirements for children with developmental disabilities.

Conclusions:

• There is a significant lack of comprehensive instruments to inform parents about expected future care needs for children with non-progressive developmental disorders.
• Development of new instruments is essential to support long-term care planning for affected families.