General practitioner provision of preventive child health care: analysis of routine consultation data

BMC Family Practice

Research Article

Rachael Wood¹  Philip Wilson² 

[1] Centre for Population Health Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Teviot Place, EH8 9AG, Edinburgh, UK;Public Health Medicine, Information Services Division, NHS National Services Scotland, Gyle Square, 1 South Gyle Crescent, EH12 9EB, Edinburgh, UK;General Practice and Primary Care, Institute of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, 1 Horselethill Road, G12 9LX, Glasgow, UK;

关键词: Child health;    General practice;    Preventive health services;    Health promotion;    General practitioners;    Health visitors;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2296-13-73

 received in 2012-02-10, accepted in 2012-07-23,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundGPs contribute to preventive child health care in various ways, including provision of child health surveillance (CHS) reviews, opportunistic preventive care, and more intensive support to vulnerable children. The number of CHS reviews offered in Scotland was reduced from 2005. This study aimed to quantify GPs’ provision of different types of preventive care to pre-school children before and after the changes to the CHS system.MethodsGP consultation rates with children aged 0–4 years were examined for the 2½ years before and after the changes to the CHS system using routinely available data from 30 practices in Scotland. Consultations for CHS reviews; other aspects of preventive care; and all reasons were considered.ResultsPrior to the changes to the CHS system, GPs often contributed to CHS reviews at 6–8 weeks and 8–9 and 39–42 months. Following the changes, GP provision of the 6–8 week review continued but other reviews essentially ceased. Few additional consultations with pre-school children are recorded as involving other aspects of preventive care, and the changes to CHS have had no impact on this. In the 2½ years before and after the changes, consultations recorded as involving any form of preventive care accounted for 11% and 7.5% respectively of all consultations with children aged 0–4 years, with the decline due to reductions in CHS reviews.ConclusionsEffective preventive care through the early years can help children secure good health and developmental outcomes. GPs are well placed to contribute to the provision of such care. Consultations focused on preventive care form a small minority of GPs’ contacts with pre-school children, however, particularly since the reduction in the number of CHS reviews.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Wood and Wilson; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012