Faculty Bibliography

OBJECTIVE:To determine whether proportion of breast versus formula feeding and timing of complementary food introduction affect the odds of rapid gain in weight status in a diverse sample of infants. METHODS:Using data from Greenlight Intervention Study, we analyzed the effects of type of milk feeding (breastfeeding, formula, or mixed feeding) from the 2- to 6-month well visits, and the introduction of complementary foods before 4 months on rapid increase in weight-for-age z-score (WAZ) and weight-for-length z-score (WLZ) before 12 months using multivariable logistic regression models. RESULTS:Of the 865 infants enrolled, 469 had complete data on all variables of interest, and 41% and 33% of those infants had rapid increases in WAZ and WLZ, respectively. Odds of rapid increase in WAZ remained lowest for infants breastfeeding from 2 to 6 months (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 0.34; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.17, 0.69) when compared to infants who were formula-fed. Adjusted for feeding, introduction of complementary foods after 4 months was associated with decreased odds of rapid increase in WLZ (aOR 0.64; 95% CI: 0.42, 0.96). CONCLUSIONS:Feeding typified by predominant breastfeeding and delaying introduction of complementary foods after 4 months reduces the odds of rapid increases in WAZ and WLZ in the first year of life.

Objective Functional gastrointestinal disorders account for a large burden of disease in children. Specifically,constipation tends to comprise 25% or more of visits to Pediatric Gastroenterologists. With the publication ofthe ROME IV criteria, the recognition of functional constipation (FC) as a disease process has become morerefined, yet the pharmacotherapy and lifestyle modifications in the management of children with FC haveremained fairly static. Our aim was to conceptualize, design, and validate an evidence-based, personalizedconstipation action plan with pictograms to aid providers, parents, and patients in the management of FC inchildren. Methods We applied a stepwise approach for the validation of a pediatric Constipation Action Plan(CAP) with pictograms to manage FC. After reviewing available clinical practice guidelines and criterion, ourexpert team agreed on these key elements for inclusion: eating, play, belly pain, stool characteristics, negativesensations during defecation, and defecation accidents. In designing a tool for eventual implementation intothe patient-centered medical home model, we emphasized the concepts of transparency, translucency, and recall in judging the development of pictograms using digital survey analytics. Prior to the recall phase, adistraction test was performed using the Short assessment of health literacy-English version (SAHL-E) toassess respondent health literacy levels. The images were considered valid when: 1. The image demonstratedtransparency of at least 85% 2. The translucency score awarded to the image was >=5 3. The imagedemonstrated recall by at least 85% of the participants Readability of the CAP was assessed using thefollowing tools: Flesch Reading Ease score, Gunning Fog, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, The Coleman-Liau Index,The SMOG Index, Automated Readability Index, and Linsear Write Formula. Suitability of the CAP wasevaluated using a modified Suitability Assessment of Materials (SAM) instrument. Results The CAP wascompleted (Figure 1). Pictogram validation: 200 respondents (all with normal SAHL-E scores) completed thepictogram survey. All 12 pictograms demonstrated appropriate transparency, translucency and recall forinclusion in the CAP (Table 1). CAP validation: The CAP combined scores for readability were consistent with afourth grade level. 34 pediatricians responded to the SAM; the mean composite % score generated forsuitability was 90.5, consistent with superior material. Conclusion The Constipation Action Plan is a robustclinical action tool complete with validated pictograms, high readability, and high suitability for use in treatingFC in pediatric patients. The inherent flexibility of the CAP allows it to be tailored to meet the needs of anychild with functional constipation. The CAP represents the next step in the evolution of care for FC. Furtherinvestigation will confirm the CAP can increase caregiver confidence in home management, improvehealthcare related quality of life for the patient, and improve clinical outcomes

OBJECTIVE:To assess the Uniformed Services Constipation Action Plan (USCAP) as an evidence-based, personalized, clinical action tool with pictograms to aid clinicians and families in the management of functional constipation. STUDY DESIGN/METHODS:The USCAP facilitates the management functional constipation by using a health literacy-informed approach to provide instructions for pharmacotherapies and lifestyle modifications. This study included part 1 (pictogram validation) and part 2 (assessment). For part 1, pictogram transparency, translucency, and recall were assessed by parent survey (transparency ≥85%, mean translucency score ≥5, recall ≥85% required for validation). For part 2, the USCAP was assessed by parents, clinical librarians, and clinicians. Parental perceptions (n = 65) were assessed using the Consumer Information Rating Form (17 questions) to gauge comprehensibility, design quality and usefulness. Readability was assessed by 5 formulas and a Readability Composite Score was calculated. Clinical librarians (n = 3) used the Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool to measure understandability (19 questions) and actionability (7 questions) (>80% rating was acceptable). Suitability was assessed by clinicians (n = 34) using Doak's Suitability Assessment of Materials (superior ≥70% rating). RESULTS:All 12 pictograms demonstrated appropriate transparency, translucency, and recall. Parental perceptions reflected appropriate comprehensibility, design quality, and usefulness. The Readability Composite Score was consistent with a fifth-grade level. Clinical librarians reported acceptable understandability and actionability. Clinicians reported superior suitability. CONCLUSIONS:The USCAP met all criteria for clinical implementation and future study of USCAP implementation for treating children with chronic functional constipation.

BACKGROUND:Interdisciplinary research teams can increase productivity among academic researchers, yet many junior investigators do not have the training or financial resources to build productive teams. We developed and tested the acceptability and feasibility of three low-cost services to help junior faculty build and maintain their own research teams. METHODS:At an urban academic medical centre, we implemented three types of consultation services: 1) giving talks on evidence-based best practices for building teams; 2) providing easy-to-use team building resources via email; and 3) offering a year-long consultation service-co-led by students-that taught faculty to build and maintain research teams. Our primary outcome was the number of faculty who used each service. For the yearlong consultation service, we asked faculty participants to complete three online self-assessments to rate their leadership confidence, the team's performance, and which of the consultation components were most helpful. We used descriptive statistics to evaluate faculty assessment scores at three timepoints by comparing median scores and interquartile ranges. RESULTS:We gave 31 talks on team building to 328 faculty and postdoctoral fellows from 2014 to 2020. Separately, 26 faculty heard about our research team building expertise and requested materials via email. For the consultation service, we helped build or enhance 45 research teams from 2014 to 2020. By the end of the consultation, 100% of the faculty reported they were still maintaining their team. In the initial survey, the majority of participants (95.7%, n = 22) reported having no or few experiences in building teams. Further, when asked to rate their team's performance at 12-months, faculty highly rated many elements of both teamwork and taskwork, specifically their team's productivity (6/7 points), morale (6/7 points), and motivation (6/7 points). By the end of the program, faculty participants also highly rated two components of the consultation program: recruitment assistance (7/10 points) and provision of team management tools (7/10 points). CONCLUSIONS:For participating faculty, our program provided valued guidance on recruitment assistance and team management tools. The high demand for team-building resources suggests that junior faculty urgently need better training on how to develop and manage their own team.

Although pediatricians routinely counsel parents about preventing childhood injuries, we know little about parents' locus of control (LOC) in regards to preventing their children from being injured. We performed an observational analysis of sociodemographic differences in LOC for injury prevention, as measured by four items adapted from the Parental Health Beliefs Scales, in English- and Spanish-speaking parents of infants participating in the treatment arm of an obesity prevention study. First, we examined associations of parental LOC for injury prevention at the time their children were 2 months old with parents' age, race/ethnicity, income, and education. Next, we analyzed time trends for repeated LOC measures when the children were 2, 6, 9, 12, and 24 months old. Last, we examined the association between injury-related LOC items and children's injury (yes/no) at each time point. Of 452 parents, those with lower incomes had both lower internal and higher external LOC. Lower educational achievement was associated with higher external LOC. Both internal and external LOC scores decreased over time. Injuries were more common in children whose parents endorsed low internal and high external LOC. Future studies should examine whether primary care-based interventions can increase parents' sense of control over their children's safety and whether that, in turn, is associated with lower injury rates.Clinical Trial Registration: NCT01040897.

OBJECTIVES/OBJECTIVE:We examined associations between household food insecurity status and parental feeding behavior, weight perception, and child weight status in a diverse sample of young children. METHODS:Cross-sectional analysis of 2-year old children in Greenlight, a cluster randomized trial to prevent childhood obesity. The exposure was food insecurity, defined as a positive response to a validated screen. Outcomes were parent feeding behaviors/beliefs measured by the Child Feeding Questionnaire and child weight status. T-tests and linear regression were used to assess associations between food insecurity and each outcome. We adjusted for child sex, race/ethnicity, parent education, employment, site, number of children in the home, and WIC status. RESULTS:503 households (37%) were food insecure. After adjusting for covariates, parents from insecure households reported more pressuring feeding behaviors (mean factor score 3.2 compared to food secure parents mean factor score 2.9, p=0.01) and were more worried about their child becoming overweight (mean factor score 2.3 vs 2.0; p=0.02). No differences were observed in monitoring or restrictive feeding behaviors. After adjusting for covariates, there was no difference in weight status or prevalence of overweight/obesity of children or parents based on household food insecurity status. CONCLUSIONS:Parents from food insecure households reported more pressuring feeding behaviors. This finding underscores the need to address food insecurity and potentially prevent harmful effects on child feeding. Parents in food insecure households might benefit from linkage with resources and education to develop healthier feeding behaviors.

BACKGROUND:Low-income racially and ethnically diverse children are at higher risk for obesity compared with their counterparts; yet, few studies have assessed their diet quality. OBJECTIVE:The aim of the study was to evaluate the diet quality of a racially and ethnically diverse cohort of 2-year-olds using the Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2010. METHODS:We used 24-hour dietary recall data from caregivers of toddlers (24-34 months) at 4 pediatric resident clinics that participated in the Greenlight Study to calculate compliance with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) using total HEI score (range 0-100) and 12 component scores. RESULTS:Participants (n = 231) were mostly Hispanic (57%) or non-Hispanic black (27%) and from low-income families. Mean HEI-2010 score was 62.8 (standard deviation [SD] 10.5). Though not significant, Hispanics had the highest HEI score. Toddlers of caregivers without obesity, older than 35 years and born outside the United States had higher HEI scores. Most had high HEI component scores for dairy, fruit, and protein foods, but few achieved maximum scores, particularly for whole grains (13%), vegetables (10%), and fatty acid ratio (7%). CONCLUSIONS:Despite scores reflective of DGA recommendations for fruit, dairy and protein foods, toddlers in this diverse sample had low quality diets as measured by the HEI, driven largely by low component scores for whole grains, vegetables, and ratio of unsaturated to saturated fatty acids.

Importance/UNASSIGNED:Children of parents expressing limited comfort with English (LCE) or limited English proficiency may be at increased risk of adverse events (harms due to medical care). No prior studies have examined, in a multicenter fashion, the association between language comfort or language proficiency and systematically, actively collected adverse events that include family safety reporting. Objective/UNASSIGNED:To examine the association between parent LCE and adverse events in a cohort of hospitalized children. Design, Setting, and Participants/UNASSIGNED:This multicenter prospective cohort study was conducted from December 2014 to January 2017, concurrent with data collection from the Patient and Family Centered I-PASS Study, a clinician-family communication and patient safety intervention study. The study included 1666 Arabic-, Chinese-, English-, and Spanish-speaking parents of general pediatric and subspecialty patients 17 years and younger in the pediatric units of 7 North American hospitals. Data were analyzed from January 2018 to May 2020. Exposures/UNASSIGNED:Language-comfort data were collected through parent self-reporting. LCE was defined as reporting any language besides English as the language in which parents were most comfortable speaking to physicians or nurses. Main Outcomes and Measures/UNASSIGNED:The primary outcome was adverse events; the secondary outcome was preventable adverse events. Adverse events were collected using a systematic 2-step methodology. First, clinician abstractors reviewed patient medical records, solicited clinician reports, hospital incident reports, and family safety interviews. Then, review and consensus classification were completed by physician pairs. To examine the association of LCE with adverse events, a multivariable logistic regression was conducted with random intercepts to adjust for clustering by site. Results/UNASSIGNED:Of 1666 parents providing language-comfort data, 1341 (80.5%) were female, and the mean (SD) age of parents was 35.4 (10.0) years. A total of 147 parents (8.8%) expressed LCE, most of whom (105 [71.4%]) preferred Spanish. Children of parents who expressed LCE had higher odds of having 1 or more adverse events compared with children whose parents expressed comfort with English (26 of 147 [17.7%] vs 146 of 1519 [9.6%]; adjusted odds ratio, 2.1; 95% CI, 1.2-3.7), after adjustment for parent race and education, complex chronic conditions, length of stay, site, and the intervention period. Similarly, children whose parents expressed LCE were more likely to experience 1 or more preventable adverse events (adjusted odds ratio, 2.3; 95% CI, 1.2-4.2). Conclusions and Relevance/UNASSIGNED:Hospitalized children of parents expressing LCE were twice as likely to experience harms due to medical care. Targeted strategies are needed to improve communication and safety for this vulnerable group of children.