Why Children With Disabilities Are Skipping Medical Visits

Children with disabilities who face disability-based discrimination at doctors’ appointments are more than twice as likely to forgo care later on, according to a new study published in Pediatrics.

“This is one of the first studies we’ve published that shows that discrimination is associated with worse health outcomes through decreased healthcare utilization. Forgone healthcare is something we want to prevent,” said Stefanie Ames, MD, lead author and board-certified pediatrician and associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

Disability-based discrimination is not always obvious to the doctors treating patients, and these experiences are much less studied in pediatrics than in adult care .

“Families can recognize it because they feel that mistrust,