The Role of Social Determinants of Health in the Use of Telemedicine for Asthma in Children.

Asthma is the most common chronic health condition among children in the United States. The adverse impacts of social determinants of health often manifest in unmet health-related social needs, potentially contributing to worse asthma outcomes. With the onset and rapid spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the identification of asthma as a potential risk factor for more severe disease, our asthma program quickly pivoted to a remote-access telemedicine asthma population management platform to best meet the needs of our most at-risk patients. Our practice provides care to a large proportion of Black and Latino/a/e children in urban areas insured by the State Medicaid Program and impacted by unmet social needs. As we pivoted to telemedicine, we consistently reached a greater number of patients and families than prepandemic and observed decreased emergency department visits and hospitalizations. About 1 in 5 families received resource touch points spanning categories of transportation, food and supplies, clothing, utilities, and rent. Overall, families reported positive experiences with telemedicine, including the ability to connect remotely with our social work and resource teams. Telemedicine may be an effective strategy for addressing both the medical and the social needs of children with asthma at risk for worse outcomes.

Well-Child Visits of Medicaid-Insured Children with Medical Complexity.

OBJECTIVE: Well-child visits (WCVs) help optimize children's health. We measured annual WCVs for children with medical complexity (CMC) and correlated WCVs with hospitalizations. STUDY DESIGN: This was a retrospective analysis of 93 121 CMC aged 1-18 years continuously enrolled in 10 state Medicaid programs in the Truven MarketScan Database between 2010 and 2014. CMC had a complex chronic condition or 3 or more chronic conditions of any complexity identified from International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes, and the use of 1 or more chronic medications. We measured the number of years with 1 or more WCVs. The χ2 test and logistic regression were used to assess the relationships of WCV-years with the children's characteristics and hospitalization. RESULTS: Over 5 years, 13.4% of CMC had 0 WCVs; 17.3% had WCVs in 1 year, 40.8% had WCVs in 2-3 years, and 28.5% had WCVs in 4-5 years. Fewer children received WCVs in 4-5 years when enrolled in Medicaid fee-for-service compared with managed care (20.9% vs 31.5%; P < .001) and when enrolled due to a disability compared with another reason (18.2% vs 32.2%; P < .001). The percentage of CMC hospitalized decreased as the number of years receiving WCV increased (21.5% at 0 years vs 16.9% at 5 years; P < .001). The adjusted odds of hospitalization were higher in CMC with WCVs in 0-4 years compared with CMC with WCVs in all 5 years (OR range across years, 1.1 [95% CI, 1.0-1.2] to 1.3 [95% CI, 1.3-1.4]). CONCLUSIONS: Most Medicaid-insured CMC do not receive annual WCVs consistently over time. Children with fewer annual WCVs have a higher likelihood of hospitalization. Further investigation is needed to improve the use of WCVs in CMC.

Perioperative Spending on Spinal Fusion for Scoliosis for Children With Medical Complexity.

BACKGROUND: Global payment is used with surgeries to optimize health, lower costs, and improve quality. We assessed perioperative spending on spinal fusion for scoliosis to inform how this might apply to children. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of 1249 children using Medicaid and aged ≥5 years with a complex chronic condition undergoing spinal fusion in 2013 from 12 states. From perioperative health services measured 6 months before and 3 months after spinal fusion, we simulated a spending reallocation with increased preoperative care and decreased hospital care. RESULTS: Perioperative spending was $112 353 per patient, with 77.9% for hospitalization, 12.3% for preoperative care, and 9.8% for postdischarge care. Primary care accounted for 0.2% of total spending; 15.4% and 49.2% of children had no primary care visit before and after spinal fusion, respectively. Compared with having no preoperative primary care visit, 1 to 2 visits were associated with a 12% lower surgery hospitalization cost (P = .05) and a 9% shorter length of stay (LOS) (P = .1); ≥3 visits were associated with a 21% lower hospitalization cost (P < .001) and a 14% shorter LOS (P = .01). Having ≥3 preoperative primary care visits for all children would increase total perioperative spending by 0.07%. This increased cost could be underwritten by a 0.1% reduction in hospital LOS or a 1.0% reduction in 90-day hospital readmissions. CONCLUSIONS: Hospital care accounted for most perioperative spending in children undergoing spinal fusion. Multiple preoperative primary care visits were associated with lower hospital costs and shorter hospitalizations. Modestly less hospital resource use could underwrite substantial increases in children's preoperative primary care.

Food Insecurity Screening in Pediatric Primary Care: Can Offering Referrals Help Identify Families in Need?

OBJECTIVE: To describe a clinical approach for food insecurity screening incorporating a menu offering food-assistance referrals, and to examine relationships between food insecurity and referral selection. METHODS: Caregivers of 3- to 10-year-old children presenting for well-child care completed a self-administered questionnaire on a laptop computer. Items included the US Household Food Security Survey Module: 6-Item Short Form (food insecurity screen) and a referral menu offering assistance with: 1) finding a food pantry, 2) getting hot meals, 3) applying for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and 4) applying for Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Referrals were offered independent of food insecurity status or eligibility. We examined associations between food insecurity and referral selection using multiple logistic regression while adjusting for covariates. RESULTS: A total of 340 caregivers participated; 106 (31.2%) reported food insecurity, and 107 (31.5%) selected one or more referrals. Forty-nine caregivers (14.4%) reported food insecurity but selected no referrals; 50 caregivers (14.7%) selected one or more referrals but did not report food insecurity; and 57 caregivers (16.8%) both reported food insecurity and selected one or more referrals. After adjustment, caregivers who selected one or more referrals had greater odds of food insecurity compared to caregivers who selected no referrals (adjusted odds ratio 4.0; 95% confidence interval 2.4-7.0). CONCLUSIONS: In this sample, there was incomplete overlap between food insecurity and referral selection. Offering referrals may be a helpful adjunct to standard screening for eliciting family preferences and identifying unmet social needs.

Lessons of Risk Communication and Health Promotion - West Africa and United States.

During the response to the 2014-2016 Ebola virus disease (Ebola) epidemic in West Africa, CDC addressed the disease on two fronts: in the epidemic epicenter of West Africa and at home in the United States. Different needs drove the demand for information in these two regions. The severity of the epidemic was reflected not only in lives lost but also in the amount of fear, misinformation, and stigma that it generated worldwide. CDC helped increase awareness, promoted actions to stop the spread of Ebola, and coordinated CDC communication efforts with multiple international and domestic partners. CDC, with input from partners, vastly increased the number of Ebola communication materials for groups with different needs, levels of health literacy, and cultural preferences. CDC deployed health communicators to West Africa to support ministries of health in developing and disseminating clear, science-based messages and promoting science-based behavioral interventions. Partnerships in West Africa with local radio, television, and cell phone businesses made possible the dissemination of messages appropriate for maximum effect. CDC and its partners communicated evolving science and risk in a culturally appropriate way to motivate persons to adapt their behavior and prevent infection with and spread of Ebola virus. Acknowledging what is and is not known is key to effective risk communication, and CDC worked with partners to integrate health promotion and behavioral and cultural knowledge into the response to increase awareness of the actual risk for Ebola and to promote protective actions and specific steps to stop its spread. The activities summarized in this report would not have been possible without collaboration with many U.S. and international partners (http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/2014-west-africa/partners.html).

Redesigning Health Care Practices to Address Childhood Poverty.

Child poverty in the United States is widespread and has serious negative effects on the health and well-being of children throughout their life course. Child health providers are considering ways to redesign their practices in order to mitigate the negative effects of poverty on children and support the efforts of families to lift themselves out of poverty. To do so, practices need to adopt effective methods to identify poverty-related social determinants of health and provide effective interventions to address them. Identification of needs can be accomplished with a variety of established screening tools. Interventions may include resource directories, best maintained in collaboration with local/regional public health, community, and/or professional organizations; programs embedded in the practice (eg, Reach Out and Read, Healthy Steps for Young Children, Medical-Legal Partnership, Health Leads); and collaboration with home visiting programs. Changes to health care financing are needed to support the delivery of these enhanced services, and active advocacy by child health providers continues to be important in effecting change. We highlight the ongoing work of the Health Care Delivery Subcommittee of the Academic Pediatric Association Task Force on Child Poverty in defining the ways in which child health care practice can be adapted to improve the approach to addressing child poverty.

Screening for Social Determinants of Health Among Children and Families Living in Poverty: A Guide for Clinicians.

Approximately 20% of all children in the United States live in poverty, which exists in rural, urban, and suburban areas. Thus, all child health clinicians need to be familiar with the effects of poverty on health and to understand associated, preventable, and modifiable social factors that impact health. Social determinants of health are identifiable root causes of medical problems. For children living in poverty, social determinants of health for which clinicians may play a role include the following: child maltreatment, child care and education, family financial support, physical environment, family social support, intimate partner violence, maternal depression and family mental illness, household substance abuse, firearm exposure, and parental health literacy. Children, particularly those living in poverty, exposed to adverse childhood experiences are susceptible to toxic stress and a variety of child and adult health problems, including developmental delay, asthma and heart disease. Despite the detrimental effects of social determinants on health, few child health clinicians routinely address the unmet social and psychosocial factors impacting children and their families during routine primary care visits. Clinicians need tools to screen for social determinants of health and to be familiar with available local and national resources to address these issues. These guidelines provide an overview of social determinants of health impacting children living in poverty and provide clinicians with practical screening tools and resources.

Determinants of Health and Pediatric Primary Care Practices.

More than 20% of children nationally live in poverty. Pediatric primary care practices are critical points-of-contact for these patients and their families. Practices must consider risks that are rooted in poverty as they determine how to best deliver family-centered care and move toward action on the social determinants of health. The Practice-Level Care Delivery Subgroup of the Academic Pediatric Association's Task Force on Poverty has developed a roadmap for pediatric providers and practices to use as they adopt clinical practice redesign strategies aimed at mitigating poverty's negative impact on child health and well-being. The present article describes how care structures and processes can be altered in ways that align with the needs of families living in poverty. Attention is paid to both facilitators of and barriers to successful redesign strategies. We also illustrate how such a roadmap can be adapted by practices depending on the degree of patient need and the availability of practice resources devoted to intervening on the social determinants of health. In addition, ways in which practices can advocate for families in their communities and nationally are identified. Finally, given the relative dearth of evidence for many poverty-focused interventions in primary care, areas that would benefit from more in-depth study are considered. Such a focus is especially relevant as practices consider how they can best help families mitigate the impact of poverty-related risks in ways that promote long-term health and well-being for children.

Teen pregnancy prevention: current perspectives.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Teen pregnancy has been subject of public concern for many years. In the United States, despite nearly 2 decades of declining teen pregnancy and birth rates, the problem persists, with significant disparities present across racial groups and in state-specific rates. This review examines recent trends, pregnancy prevention initiatives and family planning policies that address the special needs of vulnerable youth. RECENT FINDINGS: Unintended teen pregnancies impose potentially serious social and health burdens on teen parents and their children, as well as costs to society. Trends in teen pregnancy and birth rates show continued decline, but state and racial disparities have widened. Demographic factors and policy changes have contributed to these disparities. Research supports comprehensive pregnancy prevention initiatives that are multifaceted and promote consistent and correct use of effective methods of contraception for youth at risk of becoming pregnant. SUMMARY: There is strong consensus that effective teen pregnancy prevention strategies should be multifaceted, focusing on delay of sexual activity especially in younger teens while promoting consistent and correct use of effective methods of contraception for those youth who are or plan to be sexually active. There is a need for further research to identify effective interventions for vulnerable populations.

Overweight prevention in pediatric primary care: a needs assessment of an urban racial/ethnic minority population.

The authors studied the prevalence of overweight-related behaviors in an urban clinic population, parents' perceived willingness to change, and identified potential gaps in nutrition and physical activity promotion. A total of 324 parents of children aged 3 to 13 years were surveyed. Clinical heights and weights were used to calculate body mass index (BMI). Of the 324 children in the study, 55% were black and 28% were Hispanic. Approximately 151 (47%) children had a BMI > or =85th percentile, and overweight-related behaviors, such as TV viewing, were highly prevalent. Overall, parents reported a need for counseling to help their children eat healthier and be more active and seemed willing to make behavior changes in these areas. However, their willingness to change appeared lowest in areas that may improve their child's weight status such as decreasing sedentary time and portion sizes. Overweight prevention efforts in primary care should include strategies to help clinicians negotiate behavior change with families.

Youth preferences for prenatal and parenting teen services.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Parenting teens served by a teen-tot program and teens from a prenatal clinic participated in focus groups to explore their perceptions of medical care, social services, and psycho-educational parenting groups. DESIGN: The teens met in four focus groups, two prenatal and two postnatal. SETTING: Teens receiving care from a teen-tot program and associated prenatal clinic in a large metropolitan area in New England. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 16 pregnant (n=6) and parenting (n=10) teens ages ranging from 16 to 21 years (13 African American, 2 Latina, and 1 Haitian) participated in the four focus groups. METHODS: A qualitative focus group study was performed. Structured, culturally sensitive questions guided the discussion based on a hypothetical case scenario. Themes were identified through grounded theory with three coders and differences were reconciled. RESULTS: The groups revealed prenatal and postnatal mothers valued medical and social services provided in a teen-focused hospital clinic. Prenatal teens looked to providers for health education services and group support. Parenting teens requested consistent doctors for their children and social supports for themselves. Both groups desired assistance with social services, education, housing, and finances as well as educational services for fathers. CONCLUSIONS: Teen parents' perceptions and suggestions for services are critical to program development that meets the needs of participants.