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

Abstract #116966

Chioma Uzoigwe, MPH¹, Diane Abatemarco, PhD, MSW², Steven Kairys, MD, MPH³, Ruth S. Gubernick, MPH⁴, Tammy Hurley⁵, and Charlette Nunnery, MS⁵. (1) University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey School of Public Health, 116-19 131 Street, South Ozone Park, NY 11420, (917) 202-1821, cuzoigwe@stanfordalumni.org, (2) UMDNJ-School of Public Health, 683 Hoes Lane West, Piscataway, NJ 08854, (3) Department of Pediatrics, Jersey Shore Medical Center, Route 33, Neptune, NJ 07754, (4) Consultant-Maternal & Child Health Prog. Devel. Specialist, 5 Woodbury Drive, Cherry Hill, NJ 08003, (5) American Academy of Pediatrics, 141 Northwest Point Blvd., Elk Grove Village, IL 60007

An imperative need exists for attention to child abuse and neglect prevention in the U.S. Research indicates that parents turn to doctors and other healthcare professionals for parenting advice second only to their own mothers. Therefore, pediatricians can play a crucial role in abuse and neglect prevention. Anticipatory guidance, also known as preventive advice, has been shown in previous studies to decrease child maltreatment practices. Therefore, increasing anticipatory guidance screening among pediatricians can reduce the incidence of child abuse and neglect. This pilot study was derived from the Practicing Safety project, a three year pilot child abuse and neglect prevention project taking place at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey School of Public Health. This study aims to assess parents' health care experiences towards pediatricians' anticipatory guidance practices. 231 parents with children between the ages of 0 and 3 in three pediatric practices in New Jersey participated in this study. Frequency of anticipatory guidance use was measured via parents' responses to the Practicing Safety Parent Questionnaire, adopted from the Promoting Healthy Development Survey (2001). Results show that parents that more often report not having had anticipatory guidance discussions with their child's doctor are first-time parents, members of a nonwhite ethnic group, have less than a college education, have private health insurance and earn a total household income of over $50,000 annually. This study shows that there is a need to intervene in pediatricians' well-child care routines to incorporate more anticipatory guidance practices.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• Define anticipatory guidance and explain its use in pediatric practice.
• List the characteristics that describe parents that do not often receive anticipatory guidance.
• Recognize the imperative need for increasing anticipatory guidance practices among pediatricians.

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.