Faculty Bibliography

To describe how social disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic impacted child access to healthcare and child health behaviors in 2020. We used mixed-methods to conduct surveys and in-depth interviews with English- and Spanish-speaking parents of young children from five geographic regions in the USA. Participants completed the COVID-19 Exposure and Family Impact Survey (CEFIS). Semistructured telephone interviews were conducted between August and October 2020. Of the 72 parents interviewed, 45.8% of participants were Hispanic, 20.8% Black (non-Hispanic), and 19.4% White (non-Hispanic). On the CEFIS, the average (SD) number of social/family disruptions reported was 10.5 (3.8) out of 25. Qualitative analysis revealed multiple levels of themes that influenced accessing healthcare during the pandemic, including two broad contextual themes: (a) lack of trustworthiness of medical system/governmental organizations, and (b) uncertainty due to lack of consistency across multiple sources of information. This context influenced two themes that shaped the social and emotional environments in which participants accessed healthcare: (a) fear and anxiety and (b) social isolation. However, the pandemic also had some positive impacts on families: over 80% indicated that the pandemic made it "a lot" or "a little" better to care for their new infants. Social and family disruptions due to COVID-19 were common. These disruptions contributed to social isolation and fear, and adversely impacted multiple aspects of child and family health and access to healthcare. Some parents of infants reported improvements in specific health domains such as parenting, possibly due to spending more time together.

Material hardship and stress, associated with poor infant outcomes, increased during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic. Chinese American families were vulnerable to racism-driven disparities. Little is known about maternal perceptions of pandemic impacts on their infants, family, and community. Purposive sampling of low-income Chinese American mothers (n = 25) with infants (1-15 months). Semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted in Mandarin, Cantonese, or English were audio-recorded, transcribed, and translated. Transcripts coded using applied thematic analysis in an iterative process of textual analysis until thematic saturation. Three themes emerged: (1) Heightened family hardship included financial strain, disruption of transnational childcare, experiences of racism; (2) Altered infant routines/developmental consequences included using protective equipment on infants, concerns about infant socio-emotional development; (3) Coping strategies included stockpiling essentials, adapting family diets. Strategies to mitigate disparities include expanding social needs screening, correcting misinformation, strengthening support networks, and including low-income Chinese Americans in these efforts.

Introduction:Patient and family-centered rounds (PFCRs) are an important element of family-centered care often used in the inpatient pediatric setting. However, techniques and best practices vary, and faculty, trainees, nurses, and advanced care providers may not receive formal education in strategies that specifically enhance communication on PFCRs. Methods:Harnessing the use of structured communication, we developed the Patient and Family-Centered I-PASS Safer Communication on Rounds Every Time (SCORE) Program. The program uses a standardized framework for rounds communication via the I-PASS mnemonic, principles of health literacy, and techniques for patient/family engagement and bidirectional communication. The resident and advanced care provider training materials, a component of the larger SCORE Program, incorporate a flipped classroom approach as well as interactive exercises, simulations, and virtual learning options to optimize learning and retention via a 90-minute workshop. Results:Two hundred forty-six residents completed the training and were evaluated on their knowledge and confidence regarding key elements of the curriculum. Eighty-eight percent of residents agreed/strongly agreed that after training they could activate and engage families and all members of the interprofessional team to create a shared mental model; 90% agreed/strongly agreed that they could discuss the roles/responsibilities of various team members during PFCRs. Discussion:The Patient and Family-Centered I-PASS SCORE Program provides a structured framework for teaching advanced communication techniques that can improve provider knowledge of and confidence with engaging and communicating with patients/families and other members of the interprofessional team during PFCRs.

Medication administration errors that take place in the home are common, especially when liquid preparations are used and complex medication schedules with multiple medications are involved; children with chronic conditions are disproportionately affected. Parents and other caregivers with low health literacy and/or limited English proficiency are at higher risk for making errors in administering medications to children in their care. Recommended strategies to reduce home medication errors relate to provider prescribing practices; health literacy-informed verbal counseling strategies (eg, teachback and showback) and written patient education materials (eg, pictographic information) for patients and/or caregivers across settings (inpatient, outpatient, emergency care, pharmacy); dosing-tool provision for liquid medication measurement; review of medication lists with patients and/or caregivers (medication reconciliation) that includes prescription and over-the-counter medications, as well as vitamins and supplements; leveraging the medical home; engaging adolescents and their adult caregivers; training of providers; safe disposal of medications; regulations related to medication dosing tools, labeling, packaging, and informational materials; use of electronic health records and other technologies; and research to identify novel ways to support safe home medication administration.

Poverty-related disparities appear early in life in cognitive, language, and social-emotional development, and in growth, especially obesity, and have long-term consequences across the life course. It is essential to develop effective strategies to promote healthy behaviors in pregnancy and the early years of parenthood that can mitigate disparities. Primary preventive interventions within the pediatric primary care setting offer universal access, high engagement, and population-level impact at low cost. While many families in poverty or with low income would benefit from preventive services related to both development and growth, most successful interventions have tended to focus on only one of these domains. In this manuscript, we suggest that it may be possible to address both development and growth simultaneously and effectively. In particular, current theoretical models suggest alignment in mechanisms by which poverty can create barriers to parent-child early relational health (i.e., parenting practices, creating structure, and parent-child relationship quality), constituting a final common pathway for both domains. Based on these models and related empirical data, we propose a strength-based, whole child approach to target common antecedents through positive parenting and prevent disparities in both development and growth; we believe this approach has the potential to transform policy and practice. Achieving these goals will require new payment systems that make scaling of primary prevention in health care feasible, research funding to assess efficacy/effectiveness and inform implementation, and collaboration among early childhood stakeholders, including clinicians across specialties, scientists across academic disciplines, and policy makers.

BACKGROUND:Primary care providers (PCPs), including pediatricians and general practitioners, are often the first to see children with eczema/atopic dermatitis (AD). Little is known about management of pediatric AD by PCPs and adherence to national guidelines. OBJECTIVE:To review existing literature examining management components of pediatric AD (topical corticosteroids [TCS], topical calcineurin inhibitors [TCIs], antihistamines, bathing, emollients, and diet) by PCPs. DATA SOURCES/METHODS:PubMed/Medline and Embase. STUDY ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA/METHODS:English-language articles dated 2015-2020 reporting outcomes addressing management of pediatric AD by PCPs. STUDY APPRAISAL AND SYNTHESIS METHODS/METHODS:Two authors independently screened titles/abstracts, reviewed full-text articles, extracted relevant data, and evaluated study quality. Disagreements were resolved by a third author. RESULTS:20 articles were included. Surveys and national database analyses were the most common methodologies (n=7 each). PCPs commonly prescribed TCS but had a preference for low-potency agents, overprescribed non-sedating antihistamines, and avoided TCIs. PCPs commonly recommended emollients, although this was not universal. Data characterizing non-medication management were limited. LIMITATIONS/CONCLUSIONS:Most studies did not examine individual patient encounters, but rather relied on providers reporting their general behaviors. Provider behavior may vary based on country of practice. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS OF KEY FINDINGS/UNASSIGNED:Knowledge and management gaps exist among PCPs in treating pediatric AD in key areas including knowledge of TCS safety profiles and prescribing of TCIs. The current literature is largely limited to small studies that evaluate prescribing behaviors with limited data characterizing non-medication management, highlighting the need for future research in this area.

Importance/UNASSIGNED:Prescription opioids are involved in more than half of opioid overdoses among younger persons. Understanding opioid prescribing practices is essential for developing appropriate interventions for this population. Objective/UNASSIGNED:To examine temporal trends in opioid prescribing practices in children, adolescents, and younger adults in the US from 2006 to 2018. Design, Setting, and Participants/UNASSIGNED:A population-based, cross-sectional analysis of opioid prescription data was conducted from January 1, 2006, to December 31, 2018. Longitudinal data on retail pharmacy-dispensed opioids for patients younger than 25 years were used in the analysis. Data analysis was performed from December 26, 2019, to July 8, 2020. Main Outcomes and Measures/UNASSIGNED:Opioid dispensing rate, mean amount of opioid dispensed in morphine milligram equivalents (MME) per day (individuals aged 15-24 years) or MME per kilogram per day (age <15 years), duration of prescription (mean, short [≤3 days], and long [≥30 days] duration), high-dosage prescriptions, and extended-release or long-acting (ER/LA) formulation prescriptions. Outcomes were calculated for age groups: 0 to 5, 6 to 9, 10 to 14, 15 to 19, and 20 to 24 years. Joinpoint regression was used to examine opioid prescribing trends. Results/UNASSIGNED:From 2006 to 2018, the opioid dispensing rate for patients younger than 25 years decreased from 14.28 to 6.45, with an annual decrease of 15.15% (95% CI, -17.26% to -12.99%) from 2013 to 2018. The mean amount of opioids dispensed and rates of short-duration and high-dosage prescriptions decreased for all age groups older than 5 years, with the largest decreases in individuals aged 15 to 24 years. Mean duration per prescription increased initially for all ages, but then decreased for individuals aged 10 years or older. The duration remained longer than 5 days across all ages. The rate of long-duration prescriptions increased for all age groups younger than 15 years and initially increased, but then decreased after 2014 for individuals aged 15 to 24 years. For children aged 0 to 5 years dispensed an opioid, annual increases from 2011 to 2014 were noted for the mean amount of opioids dispensed (annual percent change [APC], 10.58%; 95% CI, 1.77% to 20.16%) and rates of long-duration (APC, 30.42%; 95% CI, 14.13% to 49.03%), high-dosage (APC, 31.27%; 95% CI, 16.81% to 47.53%), and ER/LA formulation (APC, 27.86%; 95% CI, 12.04% to 45.91%) prescriptions, although the mean amount dispensed and rate of high-dosage prescriptions decreased from 2014 to 2018. Conclusions and Relevance/UNASSIGNED:These findings suggest that opioid dispensing rates decreased for patients younger than 25 years, with decreasing rates of high-dosage and long-duration prescriptions for adolescents and younger adults. However, opioids remain readily dispensed, and possible high-risk prescribing practices appear to be common, especially in younger children.

OBJECTIVE:This study examines the development of active television (TV) watching behaviors across the first 2 years of life in a racially and ethnically diverse, low-income cohort and identifies caregiver and child predictors of early TV watching. METHODS:We used longitudinal data from infants enrolled in the active control group (N = 235; 39% Latino; 29% Black; 15% White) of Greenlight, a cluster randomized multisite trial to prevent childhood obesity. At preventive health visits from 2 months to 2 years, caregivers were asked: "How much time does [child's first name] spend watching television each day?" Proportional odds models and linear regression analyses were used to assess associations among TV introduction age, active TV watching amount at 2 years, and sociodemographic factors. RESULTS:Sixty-eight percent of children watched TV by 6 months, and 88% by 2 years. Age of TV introduction predicted amount of daily active TV watching at 2 years, with a mean time of 93 minutes if starting at 2 months; 64 minutes if starting at 4 or 6 months; and 42 minutes if starting after 6 months. Factors predicting earlier introduction included lower income, fewer children in household, care away from home, male sex, and non-Latino ethnicity of child. CONCLUSIONS:Many caregivers report that their infants actively watch TV in the first 6 months of life. Earlier TV watching is related to sociodemographic factors yet predicts more daily TV watching at 2 years even controlling those factors. Interventions to limit early TV watching should be initiated in infancy.

Social determinants of health influence child health behavior, development, and outcomes. This paper frames social capital, or the benefits that a child receives from social relationships, as a positive social determinant of health that helps children exposed to adversity achieve healthy outcomes across the life course. Children are uniquely dependent on their relationships with surrounding adults for material and non-material resources. We identify and define three relevant aspects of social capital: 1) social support, which is embedded in a 2) social network, which is a structure through which 3) social cohesion can be observed. Social support is direct assistance available through social relationships and can be received indirectly through a caregiver or directly by a child. A child's social network describes the people in a child's life and the relationships between them. Social cohesion represents the strength of a group to which a child belongs (e.g. family, community). Pediatric primary care practices play an important role in fostering social relationships between families, the health care system, and the community. Further research is needed to develop definitional and measurement rigor for social capital, to evaluate interventions (e.g. peer health educators) that may improve health outcomes through social capital, and to broaden our understanding of how social relationships influence health outcomes.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES/OBJECTIVE:Children who become overweight by age 2 have greater risk of long-term obesity and health problems. The study aim was to assess the effectiveness of a primary care-based intervention on the prevalence of overweight at age 24 months. METHODS:score). RESULTS:score differences (treatment minus control) were -0.04 (95% CI: -0.07 to -0.01), -0.09 (95% CI: -0.14 to -0.03), -0.19 (-0.33 to -0.05), -0.20 (-0.36 to -0.03), -0.16 (95% CI: -0.34 to 0.01), and 0.00 (95% CI -0.21 to 0.21) at 4, 6, 12, 15, 18, and 24 months, respectively. CONCLUSIONS:The intervention resulted in less weight gain through age 18 months, which was not sustained through 24 months. Clinic-based interventions may be beneficial for early weight gain, but greater intervention intensity may be needed to maintain positive effects.