Abstract
This study examined health care utilization pre- and post-referral to a behaviorally based treatment program for feeding difficulties in children. Physician contacts and associated costs for a feeding clinic group (n = 490) and a group of matched population controls (n = 1,548) were examined across a 3-year period. Children with feeding difficulties had an increased frequency of physician visits and higher costs compared to controls. A subsample (n = 86) of clinic children revealed that successful behavioral feeding intervention resulted in a change in health care utilization, as demonstrated by a reduction in physician visits.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 282-296 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | Children's Health Care |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Oct 31 2011 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This project was supported by Grant No. 4110 from the IWK Health Centre. We thank Charmaine Cooke and Yan Wang of the Dalhousie University Population Health Research Unit for their assistance with the data analyses for this project. N. F. Bandstra was supported by an IWK Health Centre Graduate Student Scholarship and an honorary Killam Predoctoral Scholarship. She is a trainee member of Pain in Child Health, a Strategic Training Initiative in Health Research of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR).
ASJC Scopus Subject Areas
- Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
- Clinical Psychology