Lay summary
One child is diagnosed with cerebral palsy (CP) every 4 days in New Zealand (NZ). Early life events e.g. prematurity, hypoxia, infection, all lead to CP, with delayed motor skills and lifelong physical disability. Children with CP in NZ can have repeated hospitalisations with respiratory infections and chronic lung disease. Respiratory illness is the leading cause of death among children and young adults with CP, often occurring after multiple, costly respiratory-related hospital admissions, indicating a missed opportunity to intervene. This project will (i) systematically review world literature for modifiable risk factors; (ii) analyse nationally collected NZ data to identify how environmental and socio-economic factors contribute to respiratory illness in this group; (iii) assess current health/economic outcomes of current models of respiratory healthcare; (iv) develop a NZ checklist to help clinicians identify and intervene earlier for children at high risk of recurrent hospitalisations and development of chronic respiratory disease as adults.