Identified health concerns and changes in management resulting from the Healthy Kids Check in two Queensland practices

Thomas, Rae; Doust, Jenny; Vasan, K S; Rajapakse, B.; McGregor, Leanne; Ackermann, Evan; Mar, Chris Del

doi:10.5694/mja14.00637

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 14 publications

(18 reference statements)

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“…In GP visits for the one-off Healthy Kids Check (HKC) prior to school entry (that stopped being reimbursed in November 2015, and was rescinded in July 2016), there were several opportunities for the family to discuss WCC activities. This is in congruence with the positive impact of the HKC visit on the management plan for 3–11% of children at two general practices in Queensland, that is likely to translate to a significant number of children at the national level [ 42 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 56%

A case study of well child care visits at general practices in a region of disadvantage in Sydney

et al. 2018

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IntroductionWell-Child Care (WCC) is the provision of preventive health care services for children and their families. Prior research has highlighted that several barriers exist for the provision of WCC services.ObjectivesTo study “real life” visits of parents and children with health professionals in order to enhance the theoretical understanding of factors affecting WCC.MethodsParticipant observations of a cross-sectional sample of 71 visits at three general practices were analysed using a mixed-methods approach.ResultsThe median age of the children was 18 months (IQR, 6–36 months), and the duration of visits was 13 mins (IQR, 9–18 mins). The reasons for the visits were immunisation in 13 (18.5%), general check-up in 10 (13.8%), viral illness in 33 (49.2%) and miscellaneous reasons in 15 (18.5%). Two clusters with low and high WCC emerged; WCC was associated with higher GP patient-centeredness scores, younger age of the child, fewer previous visits, immunisation and general check-up visits, and the solo general practitioner setting. Mothers born overseas received less WCC advice, while longer duration of visit increased WCC. GPs often made observations on physical growth and development and negotiated mothers concerns to provide reassurance to them. The working style of the GP which encouraged informal conversations with the parents enhanced WCC. There was a lack of systematic use of developmental screening measures.ConclusionsGPs and practice nurses are providing parent/child centered WCC in many visits, particularly when parents present for immunisation and general check-ups. Providing funding and practice nurse support to GPs, and aligning WCC activities with all immunisation visits, rather than just a one-off screening approach, appears to be the best way forward. A cluster randomised trial for doing structured WCC activities with immunisation visits would provide further evidence for cost-effectiveness studies to inform policy change.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 56%

A case study of well child care visits at general practices in a region of disadvantage in Sydney

et al. 2018

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“…The government also contends that no evidence had been provided to show that HKCs deliver superior benefits to children. The findings of an evaluation of the “expanded HKC”, which underwent trialled in eight Medicare Locals in 2013, have not been made public, but one published study considered the outcomes from HKCs and found that a fifth of HKCs uncovered some sort of health or developmental problem, and between 3% and 11% of HKCs changed the health management of the children concerned 9 . Despite lower than expected prevalence estimates for some childhood conditions reported in this study (eg, overweight and oral health problems), the findings still showed that significant numbers of children could benefit from an HKC.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Scrapping the Healthy Kids Check: a lost opportunity

Alexander

Mazza

2015

Medical Journal of Australia

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“…To the Editor : Thomas and colleagues, in their article on identification rates for health and developmental problems of preschoolers before and after Healthy Kids Check (HKC) services, 1 make a valuable contribution to the literature on the outcomes of health assessments.…”

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confidence: 99%