Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics最新文献

Objective: This cross-sectional study aimed to assess the level of social connectedness (SC) in African-American low-income families with young children attending a pediatric primary care clinic and examine its relationships with food insecurity and parental well-being.

Methods: This cross-sectional analysis used data from the Healthy Children and Families program, a cohort intervention study addressing food insecurity, conducted by an urban pediatric clinic serving low-income predominantly African-American families. Twenty-seven families completed baseline screening tools, including the Social Provisions Scale five-question short form (SPS-5) to measure SC, a modified version of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Household Food Security Survey Module six-item short form to assess food insecurity, and the Parental Stress Index Short Form to measure parental stress. Descriptive statistics, correlations, and partial correlations were conducted to analyze the data.

Results: The average SPS-5 composite score was 14.5 on a scale of 5 to 20. Moderate negative correlations were identified between SC and food insecurity, weaker when controlled for parental stress. Strong negative correlations were identified between SC and parental stress that held when controlled for food insecurity.

Conclusion: In this study, we propose a conceptual framework highlighting the complex interplay of social connectedness with other social determinants of child health. The findings align with the 2023 Surgeon General's Advisory on the epidemic on the healing effects of social connection and provide insight into the value of incorporating SC assessments into routine screenings in pediatric primary care settings. Further research is needed to explore causal relationships and evaluate the effectiveness of interventions designed to enhance SC in diverse populations.

Objective: Improve detection of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in a safety net, hospital-based, academic pediatric practice by optimizing screening with the Pediatric Symptom Checklist attention score (PSC-AS) and further evaluation with the Vanderbilt ADHD Diagnostic Rating Scale (VADRS).

Methods: We implemented a multi-component intervention by (1) optimizing electronic medical record (EMR) features; (2) adjusting clinic operational workflow; and (3) creating a decision-making algorithm for pediatric primary care clinicians (PPCCs). We extracted 4 outcomes manually from the EMR (pediatrician acknowledgment of a positive PSC-AS, documentation of a plan for further evaluation, distribution of VADRS, and completion of at least 1 VADRS). Outcomes were measured monthly in run charts compared to the pre-intervention control period, and implementation was optimized with Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles.

Results: PPCCs were significantly more likely to acknowledge a positive PSC-AS in the intervention versus control (65.3% vs 41.5%; p < 0.001), although this did not change documentation of a plan (70% vs 67.1%; p -value = 0.565). Significantly more children with a positive PSC-AS were distributed a parent or teacher VADRS in the intervention versus control (30.6% vs 17.7%; p -value = 0.0059), but the percentage of returned VADRS rating scales did not improve (12.9% vs 9.2%; p -value = 0.269).

Conclusion: Our ADHD detection quality improvement initiative improved use of the PSC-AS to identify attention problems and distribution of VADRS diagnostic rating scales, but additional interventions are needed to improve the completion of ADHD evaluations in primary care to ensure that children are appropriately identified and offered evidence-based care.

Case: Jay is a 6-year-old boy who was referred to a multidisciplinary developmental clinic for evaluation because of speech/language delays and challenging behaviors. He attends kindergarten with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) supporting developmental challenges with speech/language, motor, and academic skills.Jay was reportedly born full-term after an uneventful pregnancy and lived with his biological family for several months before transitioning to institutional care. Shortly before his first birthday, he transitioned to the first of 3 foster homes. It is suspected that Jay experienced malnourishment, neglect, lack of appropriate supervision, and inappropriate levels of responsibility (e.g., providing care to an infant when he was a toddler) as well as limited language input while in foster care. Ages at which he attained developmental milestones are unknown, but he has displayed delays across all developmental domains, including speech/language development in his primary language, which is not English.Jay's adoptive parents report that he is learning English vocabulary well but has been noted to have occasional word-finding difficulties and errors in verb conjugation, pronoun use, and syntax in English. Behavioral concerns include impulsivity, hyperactivity, and aggression exacerbated by new or loud environments and transitions. Socially, he seems to be typically engaged with peers but lacks understanding of personal space/boundaries. His adoptive parents have also noted that he is very sensitive to the emotions of others around him, more irritable in the morning, fascinated by "scary" things, and seems to fear abandonment. During the initial months in his adoptive home, he had frequent night awakenings, fear of the dark, and aggression at bedtime, but all these concerns have improved with time.Neuropsychological testing was completed as part of the multidisciplinary developmental evaluation, and Jay demonstrated low-average cognitive abilities, delayed preacademic skills in all language-based areas, and receptive and expressive language delays. He was socially engaged during the evaluation. Ultimately, he was diagnosed with mixed receptive-expressive language disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, combined presentation, and unspecified trauma/stress-related disorder.Given what is known about Jay's early history, what factors would you consider in addressing his parents' concerns regarding his speech/language development and behavior challenges?

Objective: Caregivers of children with special health care needs (CSHCN) experience substantial strain caring for their child's special needs because of high needs for health and other support services. Caregivers of CSHCN with emotional, behavioral, or developmental problems (EBDPs) report stress and poor mental health at higher rates than caregivers of other CSHCN. Although family support services are associated with caregiver mental health and well-being among families of CSHCN, the association of these factors with caregiver coping has been underexamined.

Method: Using the Double ABCX Model of Family Adaptation to guide variable selection, this study uses 2016 to 2019 data from the National Survey of Children's Health. Univariate, bivariate, and multivariate logistic analyses examined the association between caregivers' receipt of adequate care coordination and emotional support services and their reported coping with the day-to-day strains of parenting. These relationships are compared between caregivers of CSHCN with and without EBDPs.

Results: Receipt of adequate care coordination was associated with higher rates of caregiver-reported positive coping for all caregivers of CSHCN who have no source of emotional support. Receipt of emotional support services was associated with increased reports of positive coping for caregivers for all CSHCN as well. Caregivers reporting only informal sources of emotional support, however, also reported higher rates of positive coping when compared with caregivers with no source of emotional support.

Conclusion: Mobilization of resources that can aid caregivers in coordinating care and provide emotional support may play a key role in positive caregiver coping for families of CSHCN.

Objective: The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of food insecurity among children with overweight/obesity presenting for weight management treatment and examine whether food insecurity predicts early change in body mass index (BMI), expressed as a percentage of the 95th percentile (%BMIp95).

Method: Children (N = 69; ages 3-18 years) presenting to a hospital-based pediatric weight management intervention and 1 parent/guardian per child (N = 69) were included. At the first appointment, parents/guardians completed the US Household Food Security Survey Module: Six-item Short Form and a demographics questionnaire. Height and weight of the children were measured at the first and third appointments to calculate %BMIp95.

Results: Among participating families, 29.0% reported experiencing food insecurity. Controlling for the ratio of income to poverty, 11.4% of the variance in %BMIp95 change from the first to third appointments was accounted for by food insecurity, ▵F (1, 66) = 8.46, p = 0.01. Children with greater food insecurity demonstrated a smaller magnitude of %BMIp95 decrease, representing a small-to-medium effect size within the context of the regression model (f2 = 0.13).

Conclusion: A high proportion of families with children receiving weight management treatment reported experiencing food insecurity in comparison with US households with children. There may be unique characteristics of food insecurity, as opposed to household income alone, that explain the smaller magnitude of BMI decrease observed early in treatment. Future research should explore complex associations among food insecurity, income, BMI, and race over time.

Objective: Chat Generative Pretrained Transformer-3.5 (ChatGPT) is a publicly available and free artificial intelligence chatbot that logs billions of visits per day; parents may rely on such tools for developmental and behavioral medical consultations. The objective of this study was to determine how ChatGPT evaluates developmental and behavioral pediatrics (DBP) case studies and makes recommendations and diagnoses.

Methods: ChatGPT was asked to list treatment recommendations and a diagnosis for each of 97 DBP case studies. A panel of 3 DBP physicians evaluated ChatGPT's diagnostic accuracy and scored treatment recommendations on accuracy (5-point Likert scale) and completeness (3-point Likert scale). Physicians also assessed whether ChatGPT's treatment plan correctly addressed cultural and ethical issues for relevant cases. Scores were analyzed using Python, and descriptive statistics were computed.

Results: The DBP panel agreed with ChatGPT's diagnosis for 66.2% of the case reports. The mean accuracy score of ChatGPT's treatment plan was deemed by physicians to be 4.6 (between entirely correct and more correct than incorrect), and the mean completeness was 2.6 (between complete and adequate). Physicians agreed that ChatGPT addressed relevant cultural issues in 10 out of the 11 appropriate cases and the ethical issues in the single ethical case.

Conclusion: While ChatGPT can generate a comprehensive and adequate list of recommendations, the diagnosis accuracy rate is still low. Physicians must advise caution to patients when using such online sources.

Objectives: Autistic individuals have higher rates of co-occurring medical conditions and service use. However, autistic individuals and their families also reported lower satisfaction with health care service delivery. Previous studies described health care experiences of autistic adults, but less is known about those of autistic adolescents and young adults. This study aimed to qualitatively describe the health care experiences of autistic youth.

Methods: Four longitudinal/serial focus groups were conducted with 8 autistic adolescents and young adults. Participants were members of an autistic patient advisory board, which is part of a broader initiative at a large, urban, safety-net hospital to improve the health care experiences of autistic patients. Focus groups were conducted virtually and were audio-recorded. Audio recordings were transcribed and verified for accuracy. Transcripts were consensus-coded with an inductive approach using tenets of grounded theory.

Results: Findings included 4 recurring themes: accessibility and accommodations, barriers of health service use, patient involvement in health care decisions, and facilitators of patient-clinician relationship. Participants noted that visit preparation, sensory items, and repeated positive interactions with clinician were helpful to build a positive health care experience.

Conclusion: Our findings support previous research that suggest the need to individualize care, ensure availability of accommodations, apply flexibility in practice whenever possible, and increase health care professional knowledge about this unique patient population.