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Children with rare diseases experience challenges at home and school and frequently require multi-disciplinary healthcare. We aimed to determine health service utilization by Australian children with rare diseases and barriers to accessing healthcare.
Understanding hospital service use among children with a diagnosis of craniosynostosis is important to improve services and outcomes. This study aimed to describe population-level trends, patterns, and factors influencing hospitalizations for craniosynostosis in Western Australia.
With increasing demands for health, disability and education services, innovative approaches can help distribute limited resources according to need. Despite an increased focus on support needs within the clinical pathway and policy landscape, the body of research knowledge on this topic is at a relatively early stage. However, there appears to be a sense of unmet support needs and dissatisfaction with the provision of required support following an autism diagnosis amongst caregivers of young people on the spectrum.
The developmental origins of handedness remain elusive, though very early emergence suggests individual differences manifesting in utero could play an important role. Prenatal testosterone and Vitamin D exposure are considered, yet findings and interpretations remain equivocal.
In 2022, an international conference was held focusing on 'participation'. We shared current evidence, identified knowledge gaps and worked together to understand what new knowledge and community and practice changes were needed. This brief communication is a summary of the conference delegates' discussions.
Jenny Helen Kingsley Downs Leonard Wong BApplSci (physio) MSc PhD MBChB MPH MBBS, MPH, MMedStat Head, Child Disability Principal Research Fellow
Children and adolescents with Intellectual Disability experience a worse Quality-of-Life (QoL) relative to typically developing peers. Thus, QoL evaluation is important for identifying support needs and improving rehabilitation effectiveness. Nevertheless, currently in Italy there are not tools with this scope. This study aims to translate and cross-culturally adapt the Quality-of-Life Inventory-Disability into Italian.
Achondroplasia is the most common form of skeletal dysplasia. In addition to altered growth, children and young people with achondroplasia may experience medical complications, develop and function differently to others and require psychosocial support. International, European and American consensus guidelines have been developed for the management of achondroplasia. The Australian focused guidelines presented here are designed to complement those existing guidelines.
Influenza vaccination of children with medical comorbidities is critical due their increased risks for severe influenza disease. In Australia, hospitals are an avenue for influenza vaccine delivery to children with comorbidities but are not always effectively utilised. Qualitative enquiry sought to ascertainment the barriers and enablers for influenza vaccination recommendation, delivery, and recording of these children at Australian hospitals.
Children with congenital heart defects (CHDs) are at higher risk of developing an intellectual disability. However, severity of intellectual disabilities among this group of children are largely unknown. Our objective was to determine the risk of intellectual disability (ID), ID severity, and autism among children with CHDs.