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Rate ePoster

Pediatric Rehabilitation

Therapy Utilization and Impact on Education among Children with Arthritis, Cerebral Palsy, and Muscular Dystrophy: A Cross-Sectional Study Utilizing NHIS Data

Saturday, October 25, 2025
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM MT
Location: Kiosk 9

    Poster Presenter(s)

  • Mahi Bhatt (she/her/hers)

    Medical Student
    George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences
    Washington, District of Columbia

    • Co-Author(s)

  • MM

    Megha D. Mandalaywala, DO

    Assistant Professor
    George Washington University- Medical Faculty Associates
    Washington DC, District of Columbia

  • MS

    Mi Ran Shin, MD, MPH

    Associate Program Director for fellowship
    Children's National
    Washington, District of Columbia

Disclosure(s):
Mahi Bhatt: No financial relationships to disclose
Background and/or Objectives: To analyze therapy utilization and school attendance among children diagnosed with arthritis, cerebral palsy (CP), and muscular dystrophy. It was hypothesized that therapy utilization would be higher in diagnosed children compared to the general population, that school absenteeism rates would vary by condition, and that increased school absenteeism would be correlated with greater therapy utilization.

Design: Cross-sectional analysis of National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data from 2009–2018, accessed via IPUMS.

Setting : Nationally representative survey data.

Participants : A total of 115,310 children were surveyed, with 451 (0.39%) diagnosed with arthritis (0.10%), cerebral palsy (0.27%), or muscular dystrophy (0.03%).

Interventions: Not applicable.

Main Outcome Measures: Therapy utilization—defined as receiving physical, speech, occupational, or respiratory therapy or audiology in the past 12 months; Chronic school absenteeism—missing ≥40 school days or no attendance that year.

Results: Among affected children, 72.73% were White, 16.85% were Black, 2.22% were Asian, 1.11% were American Indian/Alaskan Native, and 6.43% were Multiple Race. Therapy utilization among affected children was 59.42%, significantly higher than the general population (7.17%). Utilization trends for race were consistent with subset demographics, with highest therapy utilization among White children (73.13%). School absenteeism data (available for 23% of affected children) showed 33.98% experiencing chronic absenteeism: 21.36% missed ≥40 days, and 12.62% did no attendance that year. In comparison, the general population had a 2.36% absenteeism rate. Chronic absenteeism was highest for muscular dystrophy (66.67%), followed by arthritis (58.33%) and CP (28.24%). Among chronically absent children, 85.29% reported therapy utilization. More specifically, 90.91% of children who missed ≥40 days and 75% of children with no attendance reported therapy utilization.

Conclusions: Children with complex neuromuscular conditions have significantly higher therapy utilization rates and school absenteeism. These findings highlight the need for targeted healthcare and educational interventions. Limitations include a limited dataset based on random sampling and NHIS discontinuation of condition-based reporting post-2018, restricting trend assessment.