(HealthDay News) — Older adults with cerebral palsy and musculoskeletal disorders have lower use of physical therapy services compared with their peers without cerebral palsy, according to a study recently published in Disability and Health Journal.
Deborah Thorpe, P.T., Ph.D., from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and colleagues used Medicare claims data from 2011 to 2014 to compare the presence of comorbidities and patterns of physical therapy and occupational therapy use among matched older adults with and without cerebral palsy (8,796 individuals and 5,613,384 individuals, respectively) seeking care for MSK disorders.
The researchers found that in older adults with a diagnosed musculoskeletal disorder, less than a third regularly utilized physical therapy and/or occupational therapy services. Adults with cerebral palsy used significantly less physical therapy than adults without cerebral palsy, and for some musculoskeletal disorder diagnoses, they had fewer visits than their matched peers. There was a greater risk for secondary conditions that influence morbidity, mortality, and quality of life among older adults with cerebral palsy compared with their age-matched peers without cerebral palsy.
“The results are staggering, but they support our hypothesis that people with cerebral palsy receive inequitable health care,” a coauthor said in a statement.
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