Abstract
Background
Receipt of recommended well-child care is lowest for children without insurance, many
of whom receive care in community health centers (CHCs).
Objective
To understand if there is an association between parent preventive care and their
children's well-child visits.
Methods
We used electronic health record data to identify children and link them to parents
both seen in an OCHIN network (CHC; n = 363 clinics from 17 states), randomly selected
a child aged 3 to 17 with ≥1 ambulatory visit between 2015 and 2018. We employed a
retrospective, cohort study design and used general estimating equations Poisson regression
to estimate yearly rates of well-child visits based on parent preventive care adjusted
for relevant covariates and stratified by child age for 3 linked samples: mother only,
father only, and two parents.
Results
We included 75,398 linked mother only pairs, 12,438 in our father only, and 4,156
in our 2-parent sample. Children in the mother only sample had a 6% greater rate of
yearly well-child visits when their mother received preventive care (adjusted rate
ratio [ARR] = 1.06; 95% CI = 1.03–1.08) compared to no preventive care. Children in
the father only sample had a 7% greater rate of yearly well-child visits when their
father received preventive care (ARR = 1.07; 95% CI = 1.04–1.11) versus no preventive
care. Children in the two parent sample had an 11% greater rate of yearly well-child
visits when both parents received preventive care (ARR = 1.11; 95% CI = 1.03–1.19)
compared to neither receiving preventive care.
Conclusions
These findings suggest focusing on receipt of healthcare for the whole family may
improve well-child visit rates.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 01, 2022
Accepted:
March 27,
2022
Received:
September 1,
2021
Footnotes
The authors have no conflict of interest to disclose.
Identification
Copyright
Copyright © 2022 by Academic Pediatric Association
