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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Janice M. Ranne, MA CCC-SLP¹, Yan Zhang, PhD², and Clare Houseman, PhD¹. (1) College of Health Sciences, Old Dominion University, 4939 Entiat River Rd, Entiat, WA 98822, (509) 784-1487, jrann001@odu.edu, (2) Department of Family and Community Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Science Center, 3601 4th St, STOP 8161-Room 1C165D, Lubbock, TX 79430

Background: The pediatric medical community asserts that children receive the most optimal health care through the environment of a ‘medical home'. Mothers must consistently bring the children to health care practices, for children to experience a medical home. Mothers occasionally withdraw children from the practices. When children are withdrawn from routine care, health service effectiveness may be diminished. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine child health service effectiveness through analysis of the relationships between mothers' reasons for withdrawing from child health practices and mothers' characteristics. The study uses Social Cognitive Theory to aid in understanding the mothers' interactions within personal and health service environments. Methods: We use quantitative analysis to examine longitudinal, experimental and quasi-experimental data to understand the relationships between the mothers' involuntary and voluntary actions in withdrawing the children from health care practices and the mothers' personal and environmental characteristics. The dataset was obtained from the Healthy Steps for Young Children Program, national evaluation, by the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University. The data was collected on children 4 weeks to 36 months old and their caregivers. Results: Behavior changes of mothers, resulting in withdrawal of children from the health practices, appear to emerge from the bi-directional interactions between personal and health care environments and certain personal characteristics. Conclusion: The health service community may improve effectiveness in children's health care and improve practice retention through increased understanding of the interactions between health service environments and personal characteristics.

Learning Objectives: At the end of the presentation, participants will be able to

• Describe the importance of a medical home for health service effectiveness.
• Identify the personal characteristics of mothers and of health care environments that influence mothers to withdraw children from health care practices.
• Discuss the interaction effects between the health care environments and the voluntary and involuntary reasons given for withdrawing children from health practices.

Keywords: Health Service, Child Health Promotion

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation