RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Parents’ Health and Demographic Characteristics Predict Noncompliance with Well-Child Visits
JF The Journal of the American Board of Family Practice
JO J Am Board Fam Med
FD American Board of Family Medicine
SP 324
OP 331
DO 10.3122/jabfm.17.5.324
VO 17
IS 5
A1 Ishani Jhanjee
A1 Deepti Saxeena
A1 Jaspal Arora
A1 Dwenda K. Gjerdingen
YR 2004
UL http://www.jabfm.org/content/17/5/324.abstract
AB Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate factors related to well-child visit noncompliance in an ethnically diverse family practice clinic population.Methods: Participants included 146 parents (131 mothers and 15 fathers) of children aged 0 to 24 months who received care at a St. Paul residency clinic. Participants completed telephone surveys that asked about their demographic characteristics, attitudes toward well-child visits, whether the most recent planned well-child visit had been kept, and their own and their child’s health characteristics.Results: All participants thought that well-child visits were important, with immunizations being the highest rated reason for importance. Fourteen percent of parents said they had missed a recent well-child visit, mostly because they forgot. More than three fourths of parents believed visit reminders were helpful, and the preferred type of reminder was a telephone call. Noncompliance with well-child visits was associated with the parent’s depressive symptoms, transportation difficulties, working at a job, having private (vs public) health insurance, and being older (vs younger).Conclusions: These results suggest that well-child visit compliance might be enhanced by visit reminders and improved access to transportation. The relationship of well-child visit noncompliance to parental depressive symptoms, if verified in other populations, points to a need for greater surveillance of children/families who do not schedule or keep well-child visits.