Multiple parental characteristics can serve as enabling factors for child healthcare utilization. Despite known links between parental mental health and parental stress with ineffective child healthcare utilization (greater emergency department [ED] use and less preventive care use), few studies have examined other related positive parental enabling factors that may be associated with more effective child healthcare utilization. Factors such as parent emotional and social support and parenting self-efficacy may help buffer parents from the stressors related to parenting an infant, and promote better parent emotional health. The association of these positive parental enabling factors with child healthcare utilization are not well understood or documented in a general population of children. The baseline data collected for the parent R01 (HD088586), a cluster RCT of the Parent-focused Redesign for Encounters, Newborns to Toddlers (PARENT) intervention, will allow me to contribute important findings to our knowledge of how parent characteristics are associated with child healthcare utilization. We will be able to assess utilization of ED, urgent care, and preventive care using objective data from chart review at the primary care clinics and local EDs, as well as parent reported, validated measures of parenting self-efficacy and parental emotional support. In this proposed diversity supplement, I will use data collected at baseline for the parent study to examine healthcare utilization (well-child care, urgent care, and ED) among enrolled participants and its association with parental emotional support and parenting self-efficacy. I hypothesize that higher levels of parent emotional support and parenting self-efficacy will be associated with decreased ED and urgent care utilization, and greater well-child care utilization.

Public Health Relevance

This proposed diversity supplement will examine the association of positive parental enabling factors with child healthcare utilization. We will used baseline data collected for the parent R01 (HD088586), a cluster RCT of the Parent-focused Redesign for Encounters, Newborns to Toddlers (PARENT) intervention to complete this supplemental study.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
3R01HD088586-05S1
Application #
10166513
Study Section
Health Services Organization and Delivery Study Section (HSOD)
Program Officer
Lee, Karen
Project Start
2016-09-02
Project End
2022-07-31
Budget Start
2020-08-01
Budget End
2021-07-31
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2020
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Seattle Children's Hospital
Department
Type
DUNS #
048682157
City
Seattle
State
WA
Country
United States
Zip Code
98105