Healthcare utilization and costs of pediatric home mechanical ventilation in Canada

What is it about?

Given that children using home mechanical ventilation (HMV) live with a better quality of life, despite the financial burden on their family caregivers. The main objective of this study was to examine private and public healthcare utilization and cost for children who used HMV. This study also examined any variables that were associated with the highest costs.

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Why is it important?

Our findings showed that there was a substantial public healthcare cost savings of facilitating mechanical ventilation in the home. However, our findings indicated that most of the time, this was at the cost of increased burden for family caregivers. In most cases, family caregivers had to give up their employment and other activities. Another important finding was most healthcare costs incurred due to family caregiving costs. Thus, it is important for this factor to be considered when making decisions for future policies related to pediatric HMV.