Parental Perceptions of Culturally Sensitive Care and Well-Child Visit Quality.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Incorporating culturally sensitive care into well-child visits may help address pediatric preventive care disparities faced by racial and ethnic minorities, families with limited English proficiency, and immigrants. We explored parents' perspectives about the extent to which their children's pediatric care is culturally sensitive and potential associations between culturally sensitive care and well-child visit quality. METHODS: We conducted cross-sectional surveys with parents attending a well-child visit for a child ages 3 to 48 months. To measure culturally sensitive care, we created a composite score by averaging 8 subscales from an adapted version of the Clinicians' Cultural Sensitivity Survey. We assessed well-child visit quality through the Promoting Healthy Development Survey. Multivariate linear regression was used to understand associations between demographic characteristics and parent-reported culturally sensitive care. We used multivariate logistic regression to examine associations between culturally sensitive care and well-child visit quality. RESULTS: Two hundred twelve parents (71% of those approached) completed the survey. Parents born abroad, compared with those born in the United States, reported significantly higher culturally sensitive care scores (+0.21; confidence interval [CI] 0.004, 0.43). Haitian parents reported significantly lower culturally sensitive care scores compared with non-Hispanic white parents (-0.49; CI -0.89, -0.09). Parent-reported culturally sensitive care was significantly associated with higher odds of well-child visit quality including receipt of anticipatory guidance (adjusted odds ratio 2.68; CI 1.62, 4.62) and overall well-child visit quality (adjusted odds ratio 2.54; CI 1.59, 4.22). CONCLUSIONS: Consistent with prior research of adult patients, this study demonstrates an association between parent-reported culturally sensitive care and well-child visit quality. Future research should explore best practices to integrating culturally sensitive care in pediatric preventive health care settings.