<p><strong>OBJECTIVE: </strong>Pediatric health systems are increasingly screening caregivers for unmet social needs. However, it remains unclear how best to connect families with unmet needs to available and appropriate community resources. We aimed to explore caregivers' perceived barriers to and facilitators of community resource connection.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>We conducted semi-structured interviews with caregivers of pediatric patients admitted to one inpatient unit of an academic quaternary care children's hospital. All caregivers who screened positive for one or more unmet social needs on a tablet-based screener were invited to participate in an interview. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded by two independent coders using content analysis, resolving discrepancies by consensus. Interviews continued until thematic saturation was achieved.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>We interviewed 28 of 31 eligible caregivers. Four primary themes emerged. First, caregivers of children with complex chronic conditions felt that competing priorities related to their children's medical care often made it more challenging to establish connection with resources. Second, caregivers cited burdensome application and enrollment processes as a barrier to resource connection. Third, caregivers expressed a preference for geographically tailored, web-based resources, rather than paper resources. Lastly, caregivers expressed a desire for ongoing longitudinal support in establishing and maintaining connections with community resources after their child's hospital discharge.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSION: </strong>Pediatric caregivers with unmet social needs reported competing priorities and burdensome application processes as barriers to resource connection. Electronic resources can help caregivers identify locally available services, but longitudinal supports may also be needed to ensure caregivers can establish and maintain linkages with these services.</p>

<p><strong>OBJECTIVES: </strong>To develop and test the feasibility of a caregiver self-administered social needs screener, a Web-based searchable community resource map, and a process map for implementation of these tools as part of social needs screening and referral on a pediatric inpatient unit.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>A multidisciplinary team used quality improvement methodology to develop an electronic social needs screener, resource map Web site, and electronic health record enhancements. A process map for implementation of these tools was refined through plan-do-study-act cycles before full implementation. Weekly measures included the number of eligible caregivers screened, prevalence of reported social needs, and use of social work resources.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>During the 22-week study period, 147 caregivers were screened and 2 declined to participate. Thirty-four percent of caregivers endorsed ≥1 social need. The most common needs identified were depressive symptoms (23%), food insecurity (19%), and need for assistance with utilities (10%). All participants received information about the resource map, and 99% of caregivers with an identified need met with a social worker during their admission.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>Using quality improvement methodology and technology, the team implemented a new standardized process for addressing social needs on an inpatient unit. This led to identification of social needs in more than one-third of caregivers screened and provision of resource map information to all caregivers. These findings reinforce the importance of standardized assessment of social needs in the pediatric inpatient setting. The role of technology, including resource maps and electronic health record enhancements, was highlighted.</p>

<p><strong>BACKGROUND: </strong>Prior single site evaluations of PriCARE, a 6-session group parent training, demonstrated reductions in child behavioral problems and improvements in positive parenting attitudes.</p>

<p><strong>OBJECTIVE: </strong>To measure the impact of PriCARE on disruptive child behaviors, parenting stress, and parenting attitudes in a multisite study.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>Caregivers of children 2- to 6-years-old with behavior concerns recruited from 4 pediatric primary care practices were randomized 2:1 to PriCARE intervention (n=119) or waitlist control (n=55). 79% of caregivers identified as Black and 59% had annual household incomes under $22,000. Child behavior, parenting stress, and parenting attitudes were measured at baseline and 2-3 months after intervention using the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI), Parenting Stress Index (PSI), and Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory-2 (AAPI-2). Marginal standardization implemented in a linear regression compared mean change scores from baseline to follow-up by treatment arm while accounting for clustering by site.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Mean change scores from baseline to follow-up demonstrated greater improvements (decreases) in ECBI problem scores but not intensity scores in the PriCARE arm compared to control, [problem: -4.4 (-7.5, -1.2) versus -1.8 (-4.1, 0.4), p=0.004; intensity: -17.6 (-28.3, -6.9) versus -10.4 (-18.1, -2.6), p=0.255]. Decreases in parenting stress were greater in the PriCARE arm compared to control [-3.3 (-4.3, -2.3,) versus 0 (-2.5, 2.5), p=0.025]. Parenting attitudes showed no significant changes (all p&gt;0.10).</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>PriCARE showed promise in improving parental perceptions of the severity of child behaviors and decreasing parenting stress but did not have an observed impact on parenting attitudes.</p>

<p><strong>OBJECTIVE: </strong>To utilize hospital EMR data for children placed in foster care (FC) and a matched control group to compare: 1) healthcare utilization rates for primary care, subspecialty care, emergency department (ED) visits, and hospitalizations; 2) overall charges per patient-year; and, 3) prevalence of complex chronic conditions (CCC) and their effect on utilization.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>Children ≤18 years old with a designation of FC placement and controls matched on age, race/ethnicity, gender, and zip code who had an encounter at an urban pediatric health system between 7/1/11-6/30/12 were identified in the EMR. Data on outpatient, ED, and inpatient encounters and charges for 7/1/12-6/30/13 were obtained. A general linear mixed effects model was applied to estimate means and rates for each group. Analyses were repeated among the subpopulations of children with and without CCCs.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>1,156 FC cases were matched to 4,062 controls (mean=3.5 controls/case). FC cases had significantly higher rates (per 100 patient-years) of hospitalizations (18.5 vs. 12.7, p=0.005), and subspecialty visits (173.3 vs. 113.6; p&lt;0.001) but not ED (50.4 vs. 45.2, p=0.056) or primary care visits (154.6 v. 149.8; p=0.50). FC cases had higher charges ($14,372 vs. $7,082; p&lt;0.001). Among children with CCCs, healthcare utilization rates and charges were higher among FC cases (all p&lt;0.001). Among children without CCC, rates and charges were similar for FC cases and controls (all p&gt;0.2).</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>FC children utilized more hospitalizations and subspecialty office visits. The increased utilization rates and charges among children in FC were driven by the subset of children with CCCs.</p>

<p>Three-dimensional (3-D) printing is gaining terrain in medical education, presurgical evaluation and recently as forensic evidence in court. Physicians, including radiologists, often provide expert testimony in court cases involving children with rib fractures and other injuries concerning for child physical abuse. Effectively communicating the complexities of fractures and other skeletal findings to nonmedical personnel using standard radiology studies can be challenging, especially during medical courtroom testimony. For this reason, we printed two 3-D models of the rib cage from the chest computed tomography (CT) scans of two patients with suspected non-accidental injury. The patients also had available chest radiographs. The DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) data were 3-D reconstructed and segmented using two attenuation thresholds. We removed unwanted structures and printed them on a commercially available scanner. A pediatric radiologist, blinded to clinical data, reviewed both 3-D models, identified all rib lesions and classified them according to their healing stage. We compared the 3-D models and the chest radiograph against the chest CT as the standard of care. We convened a meeting with the Child Protection Team at out institution to get their feedback and opinions about the models. From our observations of our experts, three spontaneous interactions were observed. Instinctively, the experts picked up and grasped the models, rotating them, feeling them and angling them to better visualize the fractures from multiple angles. The experts expressed a willingness to consider using the models in court.</p>

<p><strong>OBJECTIVES: </strong>The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of clinical pathway implementation and quality improvement (QI) interventions to increase the percentage of infants with extremity fractures undergoing evaluation for suspected physical abuse, including skeletal survey (SS), and consultation with social work, and/or Child Protection Team.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>Charts were retrospectively reviewed to establish percentage of infants less than 12 months old with extremity fractures undergoing an SS and consultation during the prepathway (January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2013) and postpathway (January 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015) periods. Using an Ishikawa framework, key process drivers were identified and additional QI interventions (clinical decision support and provider education) were developed and implemented. Impact of QI interventions on study metrics during active QI (July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016) and post-QI periods (July 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016) was monitored using statistical process control charts. Logistic regression assessed predictors of obtaining an SS, consultation use, and occult fracture detection.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Skeletal survey use pre- and postpathway averaged 40%, surpassing 60% on average during active QI and post-QI periods. Consultation performance averaged 46% pre- and postpathway, increasing to nearly 67% during active QI; consultation performance decreased during post-QI to 60%. A lack of trauma history and presence of femur or humerus fracture were associated with increased SS use and consultation (both P &lt; 0.001). Overall 20% of SS revealed occult fractures.</p>

<p>In this qualitative study with nonoffending caregivers of suspected child sexual abuse victims, we aimed to explore the perceived impact of sexual abuse discovery on caregivers and their families, and caregivers' attitudes about mental health services for themselves. We conducted semistructured, in-person interviews with 22 nonoffending caregivers of suspected sexual abuse victims &lt;13 years old seen at a child advocacy center in Philadelphia. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, coded, and analyzed using modified grounded theory. Recruitment continued until thematic saturation was reached. We found that caregivers experienced significant emotional and psychological distress, characterized by anger, depressed mood, and guilt, after learning that their child may have been sexually abused. We identified four specific sources of caregiver distress: concerns about their child, negative beliefs about their parenting abilities, family members' actions and behaviors, and memories of their own past maltreatment experiences. Some caregivers described worsening family relationships after discovery of their child's sexual abuse, while others reported increased family cohesion. Finally, we found that most caregivers in this study believed that mental health services for themselves were necessary or beneficial to help them cope with the impact of their child's sexual abuse. These results highlight the need for professionals working with families affected by sexual abuse to assess the emotional and psychological needs of nonoffending caregivers and offer mental health services. Helping caregivers link to mental health services, tailored to their unique needs after sexual abuse discovery, may be an acceptable strategy to improve caregiver and child outcomes after sexual abuse.</p>

<p>Although child maltreatment medical research has benefited from several multi-center studies, the new specialty of child abuse pediatrics has not had a sustainable network capable of pursuing multiple, prospective, clinically-oriented studies. The Child Abuse Pediatrics Network (CAPNET) is a new multi-center research network dedicated to child maltreatment medical research. In order to establish a relevant, practical research agenda, we conducted a modified Delphi process to determine the topic areas with highest priority for such a network. Research questions were solicited from members of the Ray E. Helfer Society and study authors and were sorted into topic areas. These topic areas were rated for priority using iterative rounds of ratings and in-person meetings. The topics rated with the highest priority were missed diagnosis and selected/indicated prevention. This agenda can be used to target future multi-center child maltreatment medical research.</p>

<p><strong>OBJECTIVE: </strong>Child Adult Relationship Enhancement in Primary Care (PriCARE) is a 6-session group parent training designed to teach positive parenting skills. Our objective was to measure PriCARE's impact on child behavior and parenting attitudes.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>Parents of children 2 to 6 years old with behavior concerns were randomized to PriCARE (n=80) or control (n=40). Child behavior and parenting attitudes were measured at baseline (0 weeks), program completion (9 weeks), and 7 weeks following program completion (16 weeks) using the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI) and the Adult Adolescent Parenting Inventory-2 (AAPI2). Linear regression models compared mean ECBI and AAPI2 change scores from 0 to 16 weeks in the PriCARE and control groups, adjusted for baseline scores.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Of those randomized to PriCARE, 43% attended 3 or more sessions. Decreases in mean ECBI intensity and problem scores between 0 and 16 weeks were greater in the PriCARE group, reflecting a larger improvement in behavior problems [intensity: -22 (-16, -29) vs -7 (2, -17), p=0.012; problem: -5 (-4, -7) vs -2 (0, -4), p=0.014]. Scores on 3 of the 5 AAPI2 sub-scales reflected greater improvements in parenting attitudes in the PriCARE group compared to control in the following areas: empathy towards children's needs [0.82 (1.14, 0.51) vs 0.25 (0.70, -0.19), p=0.04], corporal punishment [0.22 (0.45, 0.00) vs -0.30 (0.02, -0.61), p=0.009], and power and independence [0.37 (0.76, -0.02) vs -0.64 (-0.09, -1.19), p=0.003].</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>PriCARE shows promise in improving parent-reported child-behavior problems in preschool-aged children and increasing positive parenting attitudes.</p>

<p><strong>OBJECTIVE: </strong>We aimed to examine abusive head trauma (AHT) incidence before, during and after the recession of 2007-2009 in 3 US regions and assess the association of economic measures with AHT incidence.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>Data for children &lt;5 years old diagnosed with AHT between January 1, 2004, and December 31, 2012, in 3 regions&nbsp;were linked to county-level economic data using an ecologic time series analysis. Associations between county-level AHT rates and recession period as well as employment growth, mortgage delinquency, and foreclosure rates were examined using zero-inflated Poisson regression models.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>During the 9-year period, 712 children were diagnosed with AHT. The mean rate of AHT per 100,000 child-years increased from 9.8 before the recession to 15.6 during the recession before decreasing to 12.8 after the recession. The AHT rates after the recession were higher than the rates before the recession (incidence rate ratio 1.31, P&nbsp;=&nbsp;.004) but lower than rates during the recession (incidence rate ratio 0.78, P = .005). There was no association between the AHT rate and employment growth, mortgage delinquency rates, or foreclosure rates.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>In the period after the recession, AHT rate was lower than during the recession period yet higher than the level before the recession, suggesting a lingering effect of the economic stress of the recession on maltreatment risk.</p>