Children's Hospitals are seeing unexplained increase in serious chronic illnesses

[Emily]

http://www.medpagetoday.com/HospitalBasedMedicine/GeneralHospitalPractice/36615

Kids' Hospitals See More Chronic Illness
By Crystal Phend, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Published: December 26, 2012
Reviewed by Dori F. Zaleznik, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston and Dorothy Caputo, MA, BSN, RN, Nurse Planner

Kids with chronic conditions, especially complex ones, are consuming an increasingly large share of resources at children's hospitals, a retrospective analysis suggested.
[snip]
Complex, progressive, and multi-organ system chronic disease were disproportionately represented.
[snip]
These children with multi-system chronic disease also were more likely to have Medicaid than children without a chronic condition (57% versus 50%, P<0.001).
[snip]
The other chronic condition subgroups -- malignancies, episodic chronic conditions, and single body-system chronic conditions -- showed growth similar to those without chronic condition.

"Population growth, rising disease prevalence, and improved patient survival do not fully explain these trends," the researchers noted....

I'm wondering about environmental factors if most of the growth is in the part of population qualifying for Medicaid - but if the diseases are more demanding of caretakers then they might be pulling parents out of the work force.