Two forms of paediatric home care have been described: community-based services that
support children with a range of long term conditions and hospital-based services that
provide specialist input to children with specific conditions at their homes.
Key messages
 Paediatric home care may reduce the length of stay in adolescents with mental
health problems. It is not known if it reduces the use of health services for very low
birth weight and fragile babies and for children with diabetes or asthma.
 It is not known whether home care for very low birth weight and fragile babies produces
differences in mortality compared with routine discharge procedures. Mortality
was not assessed for patients with asthma, diabetes and mental disorders
 Paediatric home care may improve metabolic control in diabetic patients.
 Paediatric home care may not lead to any difference in patients’ outcomes in very
low birth weight and fragile babies and adolescents with mental health problems
 There are no studies assessing paediatric home care in low or middle-income settings