The Costs of Caregivers for Children with Disabilities that Participate in Centre-Based and Home-Based Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) Programmes in the East Coast of Malaysia

Abstract

Rehabilitation for disabled children requires long-term programmes
which are expensive to the family. This study aimed to estimate the cost
incurred by caregivers’ children with disabilities from Pahang, Terengganu and
Kelantan participating in Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) (Centre-
Based and Home-Based) and cost of seeking alternative rehabilitation. Cost
analysis using the Activity-Based Costing (ABC) method was used to estimate
twelve-months’ expenditure in 2014 institutional year on 297 caregivers of
children with disability, aged 0 to 18 years who attended CBR. Data were
collected using a self-administered costing questionnaire and presented
in median (IQR). Results showed that the median direct and indirect costs,
excluding medications and alternative care were nearly four times as high
in Home-Based compared to Centre-Based (RM2, 376 (11,228) vs. RM608 (739) (p = <0.001). Both groups of caregivers spent a significant amount of
resources on alternative rehabilitation. The high costs incurred for alternative
rehabilitation is a major economic burden to the family.