Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #116678

Diane Abatemarco, PhD, MSW¹, Anna Sevilla, MPH¹, Karen Benjamin, MPH, CHES¹, Steven Kairys, MD, MPH², Ruth S. Gubernick, MPH³, and Tammy Piazza Hurley⁴. (1) UMDNJ-School of Public Health, 683 Hoes Lane West, Piscataway, NJ 08854, (732) 235 - 9754, abatemdj@umdnj.edu, (2) Department of Pediatrics, Jersey Shore Medical Center, Route 33, Neptune, NJ 07754, (3) Consultant-Maternal & Child Health Prog. Devel. Specialist, 5 Woodbury Drive, Cherry Hill, NJ 08003, (4) American Academy of Pediatrics, 141 Northwest Point Blvd., Elks Grove Village, IL 60007

Objective: This study assesses the quality of care provided at the office- and provider-level in pediatric offices. Methods: The Practicing Safety Parent questionnaire is a parent-based mail/self-administered survey adopted from the Promoting Healthy Development Survey (2001) that asks about the delivery of preventive and developmental services for children ages 0-3 and provides several quality measures in areas such as anticipatory guidance and parent education. Results: The number of respondents was 500, yielding a response rate of 85.0 %. 95.0% of respondents reported that their pediatrician discussed their child's growth and development with them. When asked about injury prevention, things to help child grow and learn, and car safety, approximately two-thirds of parents (68.0%, 66.4%, and 62.2%, respectively) reported that their child's health care provider discussed these topics with them. Overall, 58.3% of parents reported that their child's health care provider takes time to understand their family and how they prefer to raise their child, and another 51.7% reported that their child's health care provider asks about how they feel as a parent. Conclusions: More than one-half of clinicians do not conduct assessment of health risk related to child abuse & neglect among their patients. Effectively communicating the information derived from the parent survey to pediatric practices can shape and drive improvements in the quality of health care that these offices provide to patients and their parents. Prevention strategies should be optimized to the specific type of pediatric practice & should account for variation in office culture, location, & competing demands.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant will be able to

• Understand the importance of the quality of care assessment in pediatric primary care.
• Describe mechanisms for designing and implementing an effective pediatric parent-based survey.
• Recognize the role of the general pediatrician in prevention of child abuse and neglect.

Keywords: Child Health, Survey

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.