Screening for Both Child Behavior and Social Determinants of Health in Pediatric Primary Care: Commentary.

Abstract

Ellen C. Perrin, MD This article provides encouraging data regarding routine systematic developmental screening in busy pediatric primary care practices. First, it demonstrates excellent use of quality improvement principles and methods to study the implementation of an innovative system for routine screening. Second, it shows that routine screening for emotional/behavioral symptoms and social determinants of health can be performed indeed complement each other. Third, it highlights some areas that will benefit from further innovation and research. The instruments used for emotional/behavioral symptom screening were the Pediatric Symptom Checklist for children 6 to 10 years old, the Preschool Pediatric Symptom Checklist for children 18 months to 5 years old, and the Baby Pediatric Symptom Checklist for infants (the latter 2 are components of the Survey of Wellbeing of Young Children, or SWYC: www.theswyc.org). Questions about social determinants of health and about the parent’s concerns are also components of the SWYC. Although the SWYC also includes components assessing the development of cognitive, language, and motor tasks, this realm was not included in the study.