Early effects of the healthy steps for young children program.

OBJECTIVE: The Healthy Steps for Young Children Program (HS) incorporates early child development specialists and enhanced developmental services into routine pediatric care. An evaluation of HS is being conducted at 6 randomization and 9 quasi-experimental sites. Services received, satisfaction with services, and parent practices were assessed when infants were aged 2 to 4 months. METHODS: Telephone interviews with mothers were conducted for 2631 intervention (response rate, 89%) and 2265 control (response rate, 87%) families. Analyses were conducted separately for randomization and quasi-experimental sites and adjusted for baseline differences between intervention and control groups. Hierarchical linear models assessed overall adjusted effects, while accounting for within-site correlation of outcomes. RESULTS: Intervention families were considerably more likely than controls to report receiving 4 or more developmental services and home visits and discussing 5 infant development topics. They also were more likely to be satisfied and less likely to be dissatisfied with care from their pediatric provider and were less likely to place babies in the prone sleep position or feed them water. The program did not affect breastfeeding continuation. Differences in the percentage of parents who showed picture books to their infants, fed them cereal, followed routines, and played with them daily were found only at the quasi-experimental sites and may reflect factors unrelated to HS. CONCLUSIONS: Intervention families received more developmental services during the first 2 to 4 months of their child's life and were happier with care received than were control families. Future surveys and medical record reviews will address whether these findings persist and translate into improved language development, better utilization of well-child care, and an effect on costs.

Assessing the impact of pediatric-based development services on infants, families, and clinicians: challenges to evaluating the Health Steps Program.

BACKGROUND: Begun in 1996, the Healthy Steps for Young Children Program (HS) is a new model of pediatric practice that incorporates child development specialists and enhanced developmental services for families of young children. HS is for all families, not just those at high-risk. It is expected to strengthen parents' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors in ways that promote child health and development, and in turn, to lead to improved child outcomes, such as improved language development, increased utilization of well child care, and decreased problem behaviors, hospitalizations, and injuries. The HS evaluation is designed to assess whether HS is successful in achieving the desired outcomes, measure the program's costs, and determine the relation of the program's costs to its outcomes. OBJECTIVE: This article is the first report of the HS evaluation. It describes the evaluation design and characteristics of the HS sites and sample for the evaluation. METHODS: The evaluation is following a cohort of children from birth to age 3 at 15 evaluation sites across the country. The sites represent a range of organizational practice settings that include group practices, hospital-based clinics, and health maintenance organization pediatric clinics. The evaluation design relies on 2 comparison strategies. At 6 randomization design sites, 400 children were randomized to the intervention or control group. At 9 quasi-experimental design sites, a comparison location with a similar organizational setting and patient profile has been selected and up to 200 children are being followed at each of these sites. At each site, 2 developmental specialists (or their full-time equivalents) work as a team with 4 to 8 pediatricians and pediatric nurse practitioners. The specialist conducts office visits (jointly or sequentially with the pediatric clinician) and home visits, assesses children's developmental progress, provides referrals and follow-up to resources in the community, organizes and conducts parent discussion groups, coordinates early reading activities, and maintains a telephone information line for questions about child development and behavior. The evaluation relies on many data sources including self-administered provider surveys, key informant interviews, forms completed by parents at office visits, telephone interviews with parents, medical record reviews, data from each site on program costs and health services use, and an ongoing log of family contacts maintained by each developmental specialist. Analyses for this article are based on enrollment data for the Healthy Steps sample and national data on 1997 US live births. The chi2 goodness-of-fit test was used to evaluate whether the distribution of selected demographic variables, insurance, and infant's birth weight for the Healthy Steps sample was similar to the distributions for US births in 1997. In addition, comparisons were made between intervention and comparison families at the randomization and quasi-experimental evaluation sites. The chi2 test of independence was used to evaluate differences in variables across groups. RESULTS: Throughout a 26-month period, 5565 children enrolled in the evaluation, 2963 (53.2%) children in the intervention group and 2602 (46.8%) in the comparison group. More than 10% of mothers in the Healthy Steps sample are teenagers; 18% have 11 years of education or less; 27% have completed college; 18% are black or African-American; slightly >20% are of Hispanic origin; 36% are single; and close to one-third used Medicaid for their prenatal care. Approximately 7% of infants were low birth weight. When compared with national birth data for the United States as a whole, the Healthy Steps sample seems similarly diverse. However, with the exception of maternal age, the distribution of variables was significantly different from the distribution for US births. There are no differences between intervention and comparison families at randomization sites on any of

The effect of parental monetary sanctions on the vaccination status of young children: an evaluation of welfare reform in Maryland.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether financial sanctions to Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC) recipients can be used to improve vaccination coverage of young children. DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial. SETTING: Six AFDC jurisdictions in Maryland. INTERVENTION: Recipients of AFDC were randomized to the experimental or control group of the Primary Prevention Initiative. Families in the experimental group were penalized financially for failing to verify that their children received preventive health care, including vaccinations; control families were not. PARTICIPANTS: Children aged 3 to 24 months from assigned families were randomly selected for the evaluation (911 in the experimental, 864 in the control, and 471 in the baseline groups). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Up-to-date for age for diphtheria and tetanus toxoids and pertussis (DTP), polio, and measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccines; missed opportunities to vaccinate; and number of visits per year. ANALYSIS: Comparisons among baseline and postimplementation years 1 and 2. RESULTS: Vaccination coverage of children was low. Less than 70% of children were up-to-date for age for polio and MMR vaccines; slightly more than 50% were up-to-date for DTP vaccine. Up-to-date rates differed little among baseline, experimental, and control groups. Over time, there was a decrease in missed opportunities, and more children made at least 1 well-child visit; however, neither improvement resulted in a change in vaccination status. CONCLUSIONS: The Primary Prevention Initiative did not contribute to an increase in vaccination coverage among these children. Minimal economic sanctions alone levied against parents should not be expected substantially to affect vaccination rates.

The relation of parent and provider characteristics to vaccination status of children in private practices and managed care organizations in Maryland.

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to identify provider practices and policies in private pediatric settings that relate to vaccination status, controlling for the characteristics of the children served. METHODS: Vaccination data came from the medical records of 709 randomly selected 2-year-old children at 18 private practices and managed care organizations in Maryland, family data from 466 telephone interviews with the children's parents, and provider characteristics from 18 site questionnaires and 42 individual physician and nurse practitioner questionnaires. Logistic regression and generalized estimating equations were used to estimate the relation of provider characteristics to vaccination status. Three age-appropriate (AA) and two up-to-date (UTD) vaccination status variables characterized successful vaccination. RESULTS: Approximately 70% of the study children were up-to-date by age 2 years for the full vaccination series, excluding hepatitis B vaccine. Family demographic characteristics were the strongest correlates of undervaccination. Neither parents' knowledge and attitudes about immunization nor the children's insurance coverage was statistically related to vaccination status. Site reminder or follow-up systems and provider perceptions about appointment scheduling and receipt of vaccine information from health departments were positively related to vaccination. Concern for liability was associated with a reduced odds of age-appropriate and up-to-date vaccination. CONCLUSIONS: Family demographics strongly correlate with vaccination status; however, they are generally not modifiable. This study's findings encourage providers to operate a tracking system, to remain current on immunization recommendations, to use all clinical encounters to screen and vaccinate children, and to ensure the availability and convenience of vaccination services.

Estimating vaccination coverage using parental recall, vaccination cards, and medical records.

OBJECTIVE: To compare estimates based on vaccination cards, parental recall, and medical records of the percentages of children up-to-date on vaccinations for diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis; polio; and measles, mumps, and rubella. METHOD: The authors analyzed parent interview and medical records data from the Baltimore Immunization Study for 525 2-year-olds born from August 1988 through March 1989 to mothers living in low-income Census tracts of the city of Baltimore. RESULTS: Only one-third of children had vaccination cards; based on medical records, these children had higher up-to-date coverage at 24 months of age than did children without cards. For individual vaccines, only two-thirds of parents could provide information to calculate coverage rates; however, almost all provided enough information to estimate coverage for the primary series. For each vaccine and the series, parental recall estimates were at least 17 percentage points higher than estimates from medical records. For children without vaccination cards whose parents could not provide coverage information, up-to-date rates based on medical records were consistently lower than for children with cards or with parents who provided coverage information. CONCLUSIONS: Population-based vaccine coverage surveys that rely on vaccination cards or parental recall or both may overestimate vaccination coverage.

Deficiencies in current childhood immunization indicators.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate "up-to-date" and "age-appropriate" indicators of preschool vaccination status and their implications for vaccination policy. METHODS: The authors analyzed medical records data from the Baltimore Immunization Study for 525 2-year-olds born from August 1988 through March 1989 to mothers living in low-income Census tracts of the city of Baltimore. RESULTS: While only 54% of 24-month-old children were up-to-date for the primary series, indicators of up-to-date coverage were consistently higher, by 37 or more percentage points, than corresponding age-appropriate indicators. Almost 80% of children who failed to receive the first dose of DTP or OPV age-appropriately failed to be up-to-date by 24 months of age for the primary series. CONCLUSIONS: Age-appropriate immunization indicators more accurately reflect adequacy of protection for preschoolers than up-to-date indicators at both the individual and population levels. Age-appropriate receipt of the first dose of DTP should be monitored to identify children likely to be underimmunized. Age-appropriate indicators should also be incorporated as vaccination coverage estimators in population-based surveys and as quality of care indicators for managed care organizations. These changes would require accurate dates for each vaccination and support the need to develop population-based registries.

Effectiveness of pediatric practice consultation on missed opportunities for immunization.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of pediatric practice consultation in reducing missed-opportunity rates at eight pediatric sites in Baltimore, Maryland. The overarching goal was to decrease the occurrence of missed opportunities from 33% to 15% for the first, second, and third diphtheria and tetanus toxoids and pertussis vaccines during visits at which children were eligible for the vaccines. DESIGN: The effect of an in-office educational program alone at four sites is compared with the educational program and a consultation on office vaccination practices at four matched sites. All eight sites received a small grant ($2,000) to fund practice changes. The medical records of children making visits before and after the interventions were audited to determine missed-opportunity rates. The policies and operations and the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of physicians and nurse practitioners at each site were also assessed. RESULTS: The four education-consultation sites experienced a statistically significant 14% net reduction in the missed-opportunity rate relative to the education-only sites. This positive effect, however, was largely due to an increase in missed opportunities at one education-only site. There was a 10% increase in the missed-opportunity rate among the education-only sites and a 4% decrease among the education-consultation sites; neither change was statistically significant. Two of the three sites that reduced missed opportunities were matched health maintenance organizations (HMOs). Shortly after the interventions, both HMOs implemented tracking and follow-up information systems, which were planned before the interventions. CONCLUSIONS: There is no evidence that either the educational program alone or the educational program and consultation combination reduced missed opportunities. The findings suggest that improved tracking and follow-up data systems and vaccination of children at sick visits may reduce missed opportunities.

Initiating the first DTP vaccination age-appropriately: a model for understanding vaccination coverage.

OBJECTIVE: Our earlier research found that the strongest predictor of not being up to date on the full series of immunizations by 24 months is failure to receive the first diphtheria vaccine and tetanus toxoid and pertussis vaccine (DTP1) on time. To learn more about the relationship between successful vaccination during the DTP1 age-appropriate (DTP1-AA) period (between 42 and 92 days of life, inclusive) and an infant's early visit to the physician (before 42 days of life), we quantified children's progression through a sequence of provider visits and outcomes. DESIGN: This study analyzed data from 426 children living in the 57 poorest census tracts in Baltimore. For each DTP1-AA visit, we calculated the percentage of times a DTP1-AA vaccination, provider missed opportunity, or deferral for a valid contraindication occurred. Relative and attributable risks were computed to assess associations between DTP1-AA vaccination and early visits and missed opportunities. RESULTS: We found the following: 1) Children who made a visit before 42 days of life were more than twice as likely to receive a DTP1-AA vaccination; 2) the missed opportunity rate for children who did not make an early visit was approximately twice that of the early-visit group; and 3) well visits were more likely to result in DTP1-AA immunization than sick visits. Attributable risk calculations show that DTP1-AA vaccination rates could be increased in this population by one third if all infants had an early visit. CONCLUSIONS: Early in-office visits seem to make DTP1-AA vaccination more likely. These rates may be amenable to intervention by increasing early visits and reducing DTP1-AA missed opportunities. Introduction of the hepatitis B vaccine to the recommended series may place more emphasis on early visits and result in increased DTP1-AA rates and, ultimately, higher vaccination coverage rates.

Are immunizations an incentive for well-child visits?

OBJECTIVE: To assess the beliefs of parents and the visit patterns of their children to determine whether immunizations act as an incentive to use well-child care. DESIGN AND METHODS: Medical record audits provided data on immunizations and well-child visits. Two questions from a parent interview were used to identify 4 groups of parents: (1) motivated and (2) unmotivated to keep a well-child care appointment regardless of whether immunizations are scheduled, (3) vaccine-motivated and (4) checkup-motivated (parents who were influenced negatively by the prospect of receiving vaccinations). The percentage of children with a visit at each age window for well-child visits and the percentage up-to-date for their immunizations at given ages were compared across the 4 groups. The 4 groups were also compared for other parental attitudes about immunizations and well-child visits, and on sociodemographic and access characteristics. RESULTS: Most (73.3%) of the 502 parents surveyed were classified as motivated and 5% as unmotivated to keep a well-child care appointment regardless of whether an immunization was scheduled. Only 18.3% were categorized as vaccine-motivated and 3.4% as checkup-motivated. For all 4 groups, there was no discernible difference in attendance between immunization and nonimmunization visits. Attendance in the windows for well-child visits and percentage of children up-to-date on immunizations declined with increasing age. CONCLUSIONS: In this inner-city population, attendance patterns at visits did not support the incentive hypothesis. This finding should reassure clinicians that providing immunizations outside of regular well-child care visits will not necessarily decrease attendance at visits for well-child care.

Parental attitudes do not explain underimmunization.

OBJECTIVE: This article describes the results of a community-based study to determine the effect of family knowledge and attitudes on the immunization rates of a random sample of children younger than 2 years in the poorest census tracts of Baltimore. DESIGN AND METHODS: The two sources of data were (1) parent interviews that provided data on knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs related to immunization and sociodemographic characteristics, and (2) medical record audits from which data on immunization status were obtained. The protection motivation theory, a model of behavioral change, was used to select the variables to assess the relation of parental attitudes with immunization status. A multivariate logistic regression analysis included only variables found to be significantly associated with immunization outcome in the preliminary analysis. RESULTS: Mothers were well informed and generally had favorable attitudes toward immunizations. Immunization status was more strongly associated with the sociodemographic characteristics of the children than with the protection motivation theory variables. Only two protection motivation theory variables were associated with more than one immunization outcome. The children of mothers who perceived that timing of vaccination did not matter were less likely to be immunized than children of care takers who thought that it did matter and children whose parents believed in the safety of multiple immunizations were less likely to be immunized than children whose parents did not hold this belief. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, parents' attitudes and beliefs had little effect on their children's immunization levels. Interventions intended to heighten parental awareness about immunization may have little impact. In poor urban neighborhoods, African-American children whose mothers are young, have multiple siblings, and do not use the Women, Infants and Children program may be at highest risk for delayed immunization.

The contribution of missed opportunities to childhood underimmunization in Baltimore.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the community-wide incidence of missed opportunities to vaccinate, to describe the clinical settings in which they occur, and to estimate the impact of missed opportunities on immunization coverage. DESIGN AND METHODS: We abstracted outpatient medical records from a random, community-based sample of 2-year-old children whose residence was inner-city Baltimore. The date of each vaccine and the date, diagnoses, and temperature at each visit were collected for 502 children at 98 different provider sites. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Missed opportunities to vaccinate and up-to-date vaccination status. RESULTS: By 24 months of age, 75% of the children had at least one missed opportunity and only 55% were up-to-date for the 4:3:1 series. Missed opportunities occurred at more than one third of eligible visits for each vaccine, including > 20% of preventative care visits. Diagnoses commonly associated with missed opportunities were "well child," otitis media, upper respiratory infection, gastroenteritis, skin infection, and resolving illness. If no missed opportunities had occurred, 73% of the children would have been up-to-date by 24 months. CONCLUSIONS: Missed opportunities occurred commonly at providers serving inner-city children in Baltimore and represent a major factor in underimmunization. Reduction of missed opportunities by accurate screening at all visits and adherence to the contraindication guidelines is a provider-based, low-cost method to increase immunization coverage.

The demand for childhood immunizations: results from the Baltimore Immunization Study.

In spite of the net social benefits of childhood vaccines, a substantial proportion of American children do not receive their full complement of immunizations by their second birthday. Designing policies and programs that increase the rate of completed immunizations in preschool children requires an understanding of the factors which contribute to the timely receipt of immunizations. In this paper, we estimate a model of demand for immunizations for preschool children. Our results suggest that household resources, the child's usual source of care, and other "convenience factors" significantly influence the successful completion of the immunization schedule.

Do provider practices conform to the new pediatric immunization standards?

OBJECTIVE: Standards for pediatric immunization practices were issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Ga, in May 1992. This article provides baseline data on immunization practices related to eight of the standards. DESIGN: Survey of pediatric providers before publication of the standards. SETTING: Baltimore, Md. PARTICIPANTS: Forty of the 41 health centers, clinics, and private practices serving children in designated high-risk census tracts participated in the survey. One hundred seventy-three of the 251 eligible physicians and nurse practitioners at the sites responded. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Conformity with the eight standards was measured as a percentage of either sites or physicians and nurse practitioners across the sites. RESULTS: Conformity with the standards varied, ranging from nearly universal conformity with the need to educate parents and guardians about immunizations (standard 5) to less than 3% for simultaneous administration of all vaccine doses when a child is first eligible (standard 8). For most of the standards, considerable variability was found between and within public and private sites. CONCLUSIONS: Providers often followed practices that did not conform to the new standards (prior to issuance). Some of the standards are ambiguous and require clarification before they can be fully applied. The impact of the standards on immunization rates and pediatric primary health care has yet to be tested empirically.

Immunization coverage and its relationship to preventive health care visits among inner-city children in Baltimore.

OBJECTIVE: To provide empirical data on immunization coverage and the receipt of preventive health care to inform policy makers' efforts to improve childhood immunization. DESIGN AND METHODS: We surveyed a random sample drawn from a birth cohort of 557 2-year-old children living in the inner-city of Baltimore. Complete information on all their preventive health care visits and immunization status was obtained from medical record audits of their health care providers. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Age-appropriate immunizations and preventive health care visits. RESULTS: By 3 months of age, nearly 80% made an age-appropriate preventive health visit, but by 7 months of age, less than 40% had a preventive visit that was age-appropriate. In the second year of life, 75% made a preventive health visit between their 12- and 17-month birthdays. The corresponding age-appropriate immunization levels were 71% for DTP1, 39% for DTP3, and 53% for measles-mumps-rubella vaccine. Infants who received their DTP1 on-time were twice as likely to be up-to-date by 24 months of age. CONCLUSIONS: Our analyses focus attention on the performance of the primary health care system, especially during the first 6 months of life. Many young infants are underimmunized despite having age-appropriate preventive visits, health insurance coverage through Medicaid, and providers who receive free vaccine from public agencies. Measles vaccination coverage could be improved by initiating measles-mumps-rubella vaccine vaccination, routinely, at 12 months among high risk populations.

Perceptions of vaccine efficacy, illness, and health among inner-city parents.

A resurgence of measles in the past decade has focused attention on the limitations of current immunization programs, particularly for inner-city, low-income populations. As part of a larger study of immunization rates, we discussed perceptions of disease severity and vaccine efficacy, as well as the prioritization of the tasks of parenthood, with 40 parents of infants living in inner-city Baltimore to discover their beliefs about immunization. Vaccines were considered only partly successful; susceptibility to chickenpox after vaccination was repeatedly cited as evidence of vaccine failure. Fever was seen as a primary indicator of illness; thus, vaccines were believed to cause, rather than prevent, illness. Immunization was not considered a high-priority parental responsibility. These findings suggest future interventions be aimed at changing parental perceptions of vaccines as ineffective and of fever after immunization as an indicator of illness. Finally, immunizations should be made easily available, even during clinic visits for a child's illness.

A new EPI strategy to reach high risk urban children in Bangladesh: urban volunteers.

Many community based outreach programs in low income countries utilize illiterate women to provide health services. However, illiteracy may present special problems in immunization or other programs requiring extensive record-keeping and follow-up. In a trial involving twenty-nine volunteers from urban slum communities in Dhaka, Bangladesh, a community-based referral and record-keeping system for use by semi-literate and illiterate volunteers in immunization outreach activities was evaluated over a thirteen month period. The women were uniformly, regardless of literacy, able to use the system to effectively refer and follow-up clients. Although volunteer performance as measured by numbers of referrals was below initial targets, completion rates were high; 87% of children and 96% of women referred completed the full series of immunizations. By facilitating active community participation, the system provides a feasible approach to reducing the high drop-out rates currently associated with immunization programs.