Utilization of institutional rehabilitation service in pediatric patients with disability in Southwest Rajasthan

BACKGROUND: Rehabilitating disabled child maximizes functional independence, thereby, enhancing the quality of life and better community participation. Utilization of rehabilitation services is a significant issue in developing countries like India. This study aims to observe the pattern of utilization of institutional rehabilitation services by pediatric patients with disability. METHODS: This was an observational study (descriptive cross-sectional study) conducted at Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in a tertiary care set-up. Descriptive data from an ongoing study involving children with and without developmental delay (DD) over 1 year were collected in terms of age, gender, distance from the institute, diagnosis, and frequency of visit. Utilization pattern for rehabilitation services among pediatric patients was analyzed with respect to diagnosis and frequency of visit under each diagnosed category. The demographic variable of age, gender, and distance from the institute was further correlated to frequency of visit. IBM SPSS statistics 22 was used for descriptive statistical analysis and correlation of variables. RESULTS: Of 464 disabled children using rehabilitation service, data for 399 (M: 255, F: 144) children were complete with age ranging from 3 months to 18 years and distance from 1 km to 600 km from institute. There were 330 children with DD and 69 in non-DD category. Two hundred and sixty-eight cases used one-time consultancy, 86 preferred intermittent services, and 45 patients were regular. Negligible correlation with a trend toward negative values was observed between frequency of service utilization and distance (Rho = −0.139 Sig. = 0.006, at 0.01 level) and between age and utilization frequency (Rho = −0.074, Sig = 0.140). CONCLUSIONS: The study showed that children with DD were main utilizers of rehabilitation services. Nearly 67% of disabled children utilized services only once with a trend toward younger age group and those nearer to institute were noted.