Physical illnesses, mental or neurodevelopmental disorders, and multimorbidity in children: results from the Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth.

purposePhysical illness describes long-term physical health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, and epilepsy. Mental or neurodevelopmental disorder (MND) that co-occurs with physical illness in childhood is associated with poorer outcomes for children and their families. There is a need for contemporary estimates of physical-MND burden to inform resource allocation and reduce occurrence. This descriptive study estimated the prevalence of morbidity status and compared prevalence of MNDs among children with or without physical illness.

methodsData come from the 2019 Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth, a representative cross-sectional study conducted by Statistics Canada. Physical illnesses and MNDs were reported by the person most knowledgeable about the child.

resultsThe sample included children aged 5 to 17 years (n = 33,715). In total, 49.5% of children had at least one physical illness and 17.9% had at least one MND. Physical-MND multimorbidity was reported for 9.8% of children. Among children with any physical illness, MNDs were present in 19.9%. Among children with no physical illness, the prevalence of MNDs was 14.1%. Differences in prevalence of MNDs across types of physical illnesses were small in magnitude (h=-0.02 to 0.35).

conclusionFindings show that childhood physical-MND multimorbidity is common, highlighting the need for screening of MNDs among Canadian children with physical illness. Integrated care models are necessary to comprehensively address the physical and MND health needs of children. These estimates of morbidity snapshot the time immediately prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and have critical utility as baselines for future post-COVID-19 studies.