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Measuring the Functional Abilities of Children Aged 3-6 Years Old with Observational Methods and Computer Tools
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Measuring the Functional Abilities of Children Aged 3-6 Years Old with Observational Methods and Computer Tools

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Functional difficulties and health conditions among children with special health needs

Donald J Lollar1, Marilyn Sue Hartzell, Mary Ann Evans

  • 1Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR 97239, USA. lollar@ohsu.edu

Pediatrics
|February 29, 2012
PubMed

Insights

Functional difficulties significantly predict health outcomes for children with special health care needs, impacting services, personal limitations, and family well-being. Including these measures improves care coordination and resource allocation.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatrics
  • Public Health
  • Health Services Research

Background:

  • Children with special health care needs (CSHCN) face diverse health conditions and functional limitations.
  • Understanding these challenges is crucial for effective intervention and policy development.
  • Existing research often focuses on health conditions, potentially overlooking the impact of functional difficulties.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To characterize the functional difficulties experienced by CSHCN.
  • To assess the predictive power of health conditions versus functional difficulties on health outcomes.
  • To inform interventions, policies, and research for CSHCN.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized data from the 2005-2006 National Survey of Children With Special Health Care Needs.
  • Employed descriptive statistics to identify common functional difficulties.
  • Conducted multiple regression analyses to determine predictors of health outcomes.

Main Results:

  • Functional difficulties are interrelated with health conditions in CSHCN.
  • Both health conditions and functional difficulties predict health services use (e.g., emergency visits), personal limitations (e.g., daily activity impairment, school absences), and family impact (e.g., work reduction).
  • Functional difficulties emerged as a stronger predictor for most outcomes, except school absences.

Conclusions:

  • Incorporating functional difficulties into survey research and clinical practice is essential for CSHCN.
  • Systematic assessment of functional difficulties will enhance policy, program planning, and resource allocation.
  • A focus on functional difficulties promotes better service coordination across physical health, mental health, education, and social services.
Abstract

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