Effect of Children's Life-Threatening Illnesses on Their Families

Many clinicians note the toll that life-threatening conditions in children can have on close family members, but how that translates to healthcare usage of family members is less clear. In this study of claims data from a large commercial insurance plan, researchers identified 7000 children with one of four life-threatening conditions (i.e., severe prematurity, critical congenital heart disease, cancer, or progressive neurological impairment). These children were matched with about 19,000 control children without life-threatening conditions. In adjusted analyses, siblings and parents were assessed with a composite measure of healthcare usage, including encounters, new diagnoses, and number of prescriptions.

During mean follow-up of nearly 2 …