Knapp Caprice A, Thompson Lindsay A, Vogel W Bruce, Madden Vanessa L, Shenkman Elizabeth A
Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, University of Florida, 1329 SW 16th Street, Gainesville, FL 32608, USA.
Am J Hosp Palliat Care. 2009 Feb-Mar;26(1):40-6. doi: 10.1177/1049909108327025. Epub 2008 Dec 1.
An estimated 500 000 children annually cope with life-limiting conditions expected to lead to premature death, but little is known about their health care expenditures at the end of life. This information is crucial for health planners to propose pediatric palliative care programs. This study aims to estimate predicted health care expenditures for Medicaid-eligible infants and children across several health service categories. Across these categories, infants and children were predicted to spend about US$110 000 and US$62 000 at the end of life, respectively. About 5% of infants and 8% of children incurred hospice expenditures. Results from the multivariate models suggest that black, non-Hispanic children are less likely than white, non-Hispanic children to use hospice care. Baseline expenditure information from this study can be used to develop integrated pediatric palliative care models. Our findings also suggest that many more children could potentially benefit by using hospice care at the end of life.
据估计，每年有50万儿童面临危及生命的状况，预计会导致过早死亡，但对于他们临终时的医疗保健支出却知之甚少。这些信息对于卫生规划者提出儿科姑息治疗方案至关重要。本研究旨在估算符合医疗补助条件的婴幼儿和儿童在几个卫生服务类别的预计医疗保健支出。在这些类别中，预计婴幼儿和儿童临终时的支出分别约为11万美元和6.2万美元。约5%的婴幼儿和8%的儿童产生了临终关怀支出。多变量模型的结果表明，非西班牙裔黑人儿童比非西班牙裔白人儿童使用临终关怀服务的可能性更小。本研究的基线支出信息可用于开发综合儿科姑息治疗模式。我们的研究结果还表明，更多儿童在临终时使用临终关怀服务可能会从中受益。
