Call for abstracts: Pediatrics

JOURNAL SUPPLEMENT ON MATERNAL, INFANT, AND EARLY CHILDHOOD HOME VISITING AND PEDIATRIC CARE: POLICY AND PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS FOR CHILD HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Call for Abstracts

Introduction

In February 2009, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released a policy statement reaffirming its support of home visiting as an intervention to enhance developmental, health, and safety outcomes for children.1

This policy statement states that home visiting programs, integrated within the pediatric medical home, have the potential to mitigate disparities in health and developmental outcomes for children from at-risk families. On March 22, 2010, the President signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (Affordable Care Act) (P.L. 111-148) and through an amendment of Title V of the Social Security Act, authorized the creation of the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program. The MIECHV program supports improvements in health and development outcomes for at-risk children through evidence-based home visiting programs which are being implemented through collaborations between the federal government and states and local communities.

The U. S. Department of Health and Human Services defines a home visiting program as one that includes home visiting as a primary service delivery strategy (excluding programs with infrequent or supplemental home visiting), and is offered on a voluntary basis to pregnant women or children birth to age 5 targeting one or more of the participant outcomes in the legislation: improved maternal and child health, prevention of child injuries, child abuse, or maltreatment, and reduction of emergency department visits, improvement in school readiness and achievement, reduction in crime or domestic violence, improvements in family economic self-sufficiency, and improvements in the coordination and referrals for other community resources and supports.

Although significant evidence exists in the literature to support the effectiveness of home visiting programs in mitigating child health and developmental risk factors, less is known about the practical realities and challenges of linking home visiting to pediatric care. Effective collaboration between pediatricians and home visitors is critical in ensuring that children from at risk-populations obtain the full benefits of the home visiting program.

To address this gap, extend the knowledge base, highlight the state of empirical research, and provide a forum for discussion of the impacts of MIECHV on policy and practice for early childhood care, the U. S. Department of Health Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration and the Administration for Children and Families are pleased to announce a call for abstracts for papers to be published in a special supplement in PEDIATRICS on the broad theme, “Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting and Pediatric Care: Policy and Practice Implications for Child Health and Development.”

1 Pediatrics, 123 (2), 2009, pp.598-603

Study Areas

We are interested in a broad spectrum of abstracts proposing original scholarly papers, based on research, systematic reviews, or program evaluation that illuminates the evidence-base and are relevant to home visiting and pediatric care. We are particularly interested in abstracts that propose novel or emerging evidence-based methods on the relationship between home visiting and pediatric health care. We anticipate that studies or review papers emanating from these abstracts will focus on a broad range of topics within the overall theme of home visiting, early childhood, and pediatric health care, including, but not limited to:

• Innovative programmatic approaches related to building integrated early childhood systems including the implementation of home visiting programs in partnership with the pediatric community;

• Novel methods for engaging and retaining hard-to-reach families and families at-risk for negative child health outcomes;

• Innovative or empirically-tested approaches of partnership and/or collaboration for developmental or health risk assessment of children between home visiting and pediatric care providers;

• Theoretical frameworks for improving coordination between home visiting and new/existing treatment and referral systems;

• Creative methods on the use of home visiting to address specific risk factors and within special populations such as child maltreatment, intimate partner violence, substance use, maternal health, and family insurance coverage;

• Identification of research gaps and suggestions on areas of consideration for future research; and

• Science-based practice recommendations of relevance to pediatricians, health practitioners, home visitors, and/or policy makers.

In addition to large scale research or evaluation, we are also interested in reviewing abstracts of empirical manuscripts that will report findings from smaller sample studies in addition to pilot or feasibility interventions using home visiting to address the priorities above.

Structured Abstract

Prospective authors should submit a structured one-page abstract not to exceed 300 words to include the following headings:

• Introduction

• Methods

• Results

• Conclusions, and

• Implications for Policy and Practice.

Acknowledgment

Authors of abstracts will receive an email acknowledging the receipt of their submissions. Authors will receive information on the disposition of their submissions within 6 weeks. Authors of successful abstracts will be invited to submit a full paper for review and will be required to commit to a timeline and a submission deadline of December 31, 2012.

Deadline

Deadline for the submission of abstracts is September 14, 2012.

All abstracts should be submitted via email to:

Romuladus Azuine, DrPH, MPH, RN

Supplement Managing Editor

Health Resources and Services Administration

Maternal and Child Health Bureau

5600 Fishers Lane

Rockville, MD 20852

Email: RAzuine@hrsa.gov.