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Key Publications in Child & Adolescent Health

Study Examples | Key Publications | Intro

A few key publications are listed below:

In this cohort study of more than 175,000 children enrolled in health plans, three quarters were up to date for all immunizations at age 2 years; but only 36 percent of children had received all their immunizations at the recommended ages and intervals between doses. The study leaders suggest efforts to help health plans to get their members to follow the recommended guidelines, to improve prevention of childhood infectious diseases.

—Mell LK, Ogren DS, Davis RL, Mullooly JP, Black SB, Shinefield HR, Zangwill KM, Ward JI, Marcy SM, Chen RT (2005). Compliance with national immunization guidelines for children younger than 2 years, 1996-1999. Pediatrics, 115 (2): 461–467.

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Safe storage of firearms has been recommended to prevent gun-related injuries to children, but few interventions have improved storage practices. This study examined a multifaceted community education campaign to promote safe handgun storage. The campaign, begun in 1997 in King County, Washington, did not change safe-storage practices significantly in households with handguns and children, when compared to control counties. Even if the campaign slightly improved safe firearm storage, simultaneous state and national gun-safety activities or legislative efforts may have spotlighted gun-related issues in the control counties.

—Sidman EA, Grossman DC, Koepsell TD, D'Ambrosio L, Britt J, Simpson ES, Rivara FP, Bergman AB (2005). Evaluation of a community-based handgun safe-storage campaign. Pediatrics, 115 (6): 654–661.

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The United States lacks population-based systems to detect adverse events rapidly after new vaccines are introduced. The leaders of this study used years of data from four health plans in the Vaccine Safety Datalink. They followed each week's vaccinated children for four weeks, comparing rates of adverse events with rates among children of similar ages before the new vaccine was introduced. They concluded that it is feasible to develop systems for rapid and routine population-based assessments of new vaccine safety.

—Davis RL, Kolczak M, Lewis E, Nordin J, Goodman M, Shay DK, Platt R, Black S, Shinefield H, Chen RT (2005). Active surveillance of vaccine safety: a system to detect early signs of adverse events. Epidemiology, 16 (3): 336–341.

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Traditional approaches to change primary care practice have not led to full implementation of national asthma guidelines. This two-year randomized controlled clinical trial found that planned care (nurse-mediated organizational change plus peer leader education) is an effective model for improving asthma care. On its own, peer leader education may also serve as a useful model for improving asthma care, but it is less comprehensive and its effect on treatment less pronounced.

—Lozano P, Finkelstein JA, Carey VJ, Wagner EH, Inui TS, Fuhlbrigge AL, Soumerai SB, Sullivan SD, Weiss ST, Weiss KB (2004). A multisite randomized trial of the effects of physician education and organizational change in chronic-asthma care: health outcomes of the Pediatric Asthma Care Patient Outcomes Research Team II Study. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 158 (9): 875–883.

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Controller medications for persistent asthma should be used daily to prevent the airways from swelling, while reliever medications are meant for use as "rescue medication." Yet even in families with health insurance, many children have poorly controlled asthma, whether or not controllers were prescribed for them. Like other children, they tend to rely too much on relievers, not using controllers enough.

—Lozano P, Finkelstein JA, Hecht J, Shulruff R, Weiss KB (2003). Asthma medication use and disease burden in children in a primary care population. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 157 (1): 81–88.

Study Examples | Key Publications | Intro

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