Journal article
Healthcare costs associated with language difficulties up to 9 years of age: Australian population-based study
E Sciberras, EM Westrupp, M Wake, JM Nicholson, N Lucas, F Mensah, L Gold, S Reilly
International Journal of Speech Language Pathology | Published : 2015
Abstract
Purpose. This study aimed to quantify the non-hospital healthcare costs associated with language difficulties within two nationally representative samples of children. Method. Data were from three biennial waves (2004-2008) of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (B cohort: 0-5 years; K cohort: 4-9 years). Language difficulties were defined as scores ≤ 1.25 SD below the mean on measures of parent-reported communication (0-3 years) and directly assessed vocabulary (4-9 years). Participant data were linked to administrative data on non-hospital healthcare attendances and prescription medications from the universal Australian Medicare subsidized healthcare scheme. Result. It was found ..
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Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
This article uses confidential unit record files from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) survey. The LSAC study was initiated and funded by the former Commonwealth Department of Families, Housing, Community Services, and Indigenous Affairs (now known as the Department of Social Services), and was managed by the Australian Institute of Family Studies. The findings and views reported in this article are those of the authors and should not be attributed to either the former Commonwealth Department of Families, Housing, Community Services, and Indigenous Affairs, or the Australian Institute of Family Studies. We thank all the families participating in the LSAC study. This work was supported by Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Centre for Research Excellence funding (ES, EW, MW, FM, LG, JN, SR: 1023493). Drs Sciberras, Mensah, and Gold were funded by NHMRC Population Health Capacity Building Grants (436914 and 425855) and NHMRC Early Career Research Fellowships (ES: 1037159; FM: 1037449; LG: 1035100). Professors Wake, Nicholson, and Reilly were supported by NHMRC Career Development Awards (MW: 546405; JN: 390136), Research (MW: 1046518) and Practitioner Fellowships (SR: 1041892). MCRI research is supported by the Victorian Government's Operational Infrastructure Support Program, and the Parenting Research Centre receives funding from the Victorian Government Department of Education and Early Child Development. We acknowledge the peer review provided by the LSAC analysis group comprising staff from the Parenting Research Centre and Murdoch Childrens Research Institute.