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June 2018 Research Round-Up

Below we highlight recent literature on screening for and/or addressing social needs in clinical settings. To receive the Research Round-Up in your email, sign up for our monthly newsletter.

Find these articles and many more in our searchable Evidence Library.

 

Beyond Health Care: The Role of Social Determinants in Promoting Health and Health Equity
S. Artiga & E. Hinton
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
This brief provides an overview of social determinants of health (SDH) and describes emerging SDH initiatives both outside and within the US health care system, including federal innovations and state Medicaid payment and delivery models.

Perspectives from the Society for Pediatric Research: Interventions Targeting Social Needs in Pediatric Clinical Care
A.F. Beck, A.J. Cohen, J.D. Colvin, et al.
Pediatric Research
This commentary summarizes trends, evidence, and research opportunities related to interventions addressing the social determinants of health in pediatric settings.

Promoting Better Health Beyond Health Care: State-Level Multi-Sector Actions for Addressing the Social, Economic, and Environmental Factors that Impact Health
A. Beers, A. Spencer, K. Moses, A. Hamblin, & Center for Health Care Strategies
Center for Health Care Strategies, Inc.
This report explores ways that states are collaborating across sectors to improve population health. A companion set of five case studies provides a more detailed look at innovative cross-sector initiatives in five states.

Community Care Coordination Systems: Connecting Patients To Community Services
J. Bonney & D.I. Chang
AcademyHealth & Nemours Children’s Health Systems
This brief describes “community care coordination systems”, care coordination systems that connect patients to community services, and provides a checklist of the functions and features of a successful comprehensive system.

Implementation of a Comprehensive Program to Improve Child Physical Abuse Screening and Detection in the Emergency Department
S.M. Carson
Journal of Emergency Nursing
This pre-post study found that an educational session helped increase provider knowledge and confidence for child physical abuse screening.

Roles and Functions of Community Health Workers in Primary Care
A.L. Hartzler, L. Tuzzio, C. Hsu, & E.H. Wagner
Annals of Family Medicine
This literature review and synthesis describes 12 main functions and 3 main roles for Community Health Workers, including the role of providing community resource connections.

A Community Health Worker-Led Rotation to Train Medical Students in the Social Determinants of Health
S. Kangovi, T. Carter, R.A. Smith, & H.M. DeLisser
Journal of Health Care for the Poor & Underserved
This paper describes a service-learning rotation in which medical students serve as apprentices to community health workers and presents results from the formative qualitative evaluation.

Implementing Social Determinants of Health Interventions in Medicaid Managed Care: How to Leverage Existing Authorities and Shift to Value-Based Purchasing
T. McGinnis, D. Crumley, & D. Chang
AcademyHealth & Nemours Children’s Health Systems
This issue brief draws upon the experience of the PacificSource Columbia Gorge Coordinated Care Organization (CCO), a regional Medicaid payer operating as the sole managed care organization in a rural area in Oregon, to provide advice for state Medicaid agencies and managed care organizations (MCOs) interested in implementing community service referrals and care coordination within managed care.

Going Beyond Clinical Care to Reduce Health Care Spending: Findings from the J-CHiP Community-Based Population Health Management Program Evaluation
S.M.E. Murphy, D.E. Hough, M.L. Sylvia, et al.
Medical Care
This study evaluated the impact of a clinical-community population health management partnership on cost and utilization. Using a difference-in-differences design, the authors found lower costs and lower admission/readmission rates for Medicaid beneficiaries and lower costs, but similar utilization, for Medicare beneficiaries, although none of the differences were statistically significant.

Maternal Depression Screening as an Opening to Address Social Determinants of Children’s Health
E.L. Schor
JAMA Pediatrics
This JAMA Viewpoint article argues for introducing screening for maternal depression in pediatric settings as a feasible first step toward more comprehensive consideration of social determinants of health in pediatric care.

Medical Respite for People Experiencing Homelessness: Financial Impacts with Alternative Levels of Medicaid Coverage
D. Shelter & D.S. Shepard
Journal of Health Care for the Poor & Underserved
This study estimated that each dollar invested in medical respite programs for homeless patients would offset an average of $1.81 in hospital costs.

Addressing the Social Determinants of Mental Health: If Not Now, When? If Not Us, Who?
R.S. Shim & M.T. Compton
Psychiatric Services
The authors of this inaugural column in Psychiatry Online devoted to the social determinants of mental health issue a call to action on social determinants of mental health in order to eliminate inequities in mental health and improve mental health outcomes on a population level.

Integrating Community Health Workers into State and Local Chronic Disease Prevention Efforts: Program and Financing Considerations
A. Spencer
AcademyHealth & Nemours Children’s Health Systems
This brief highlights Community Health Workers’ (CHWs) roles connecting patients to health and human services, examines the evidence behind incorporating CHWs into upstream prevention efforts, and discusses financing options available to support CHWs.

A Pilot Investigation of Food Insecurity Among Children seen in an Outpatient Pediatric Nephrology Clinic
M.C. Starr, K. Fisher, K. Thompson, K. Thurber-Smith, & S. Hingorani
Preventive Medicine Reports
This pilot screening study found that nearly 35% of 118 children seen in a pediatric nephrology outpatient clinic in Seattle, Washington lived in food insecure households. Barriers to food security included restricted diets, identifying and accessing community resources, and not qualifying for support.

Medicaid and Head Start: Opportunities to Collaborate and Pay for Upstream Prevention
A. Steinberg & D.I. Chang
AcademyHealth & Nemours Children’s Health Systems
This brief explores ways in which Medicaid managed care organizations and Heat Start programs could partner to better link families to needed health and social services.

What Would Help Low-Income Families? Results from a North American Survey of 2-1-1 Helpline Professionals
T. Thompson, A.M. Roux, P.L. Kohl, S. Boyum, & M.W. Kreuter
Journal of Child Health Care
The authors report on a survey of 2-1-1 staff and leadership across the US and Canada, which found that childcare, parenting, and child health/health care were the categories of needs respondents most thought would improve low-income families' lives. Over half of the respondents rated community resources inadequate to address childcare needs.

 

 

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