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Impact of a neighborhood-based curriculum on the helpfulness of pediatric residents' anticipatory guidance to impoverished families

F.J. Real, A.F. Beck, J.R. Spaulding, H. Sucharew, M.D. Klein
Matern Child Health J

Introduction: Neighborhood location has been shown to impact childhood health and well-being. It follows that neighborhood context-the risks and assets present within a patient's neighborhood-may be an important consideration during provision of primary care. Pediatric residents often serve as the primary care physicians for high risk populations though are often unfamiliar with local neighborhoods. As such, education interventions that deepen residents' understanding of a patient's neighborhood context may allow for targeted care provision. A neighborhood-based curriculum was therefore created to improve residents' familiarity with local neighborhoods.

Methods: The neighborhood-based curriculum utilized a shared interactive presentation to address the topics of housing, nutrition, safe play, pharmacies, and transportation. Education modules included introduction to readily available on-line resources. A pre-post survey assessed resident self-perceived competence on the curricular topics of interest. Caregivers were interviewed in the post-curriculum period to rate the helpfulness of resident-administered advice.

Results: Following the curriculum, residents reported improved competence on the topics of safe play and transportation (p

Discussion: A neighborhood-based education curriculum can be effective in teaching pediatric residents about the social determinants of health and local neighborhood resources. As research increasingly demonstrates the impact of neighborhood on health, we expect further educational focus on neighborhood as a means from which to educate residents who often care for an impoverished population.

Real FJ, Beck AF, Spaulding JR, Sucharew H, Klein MD. Impact of a neighborhood-based curriculum on the helpfulness of pediatric residents' anticipatory guidance to impoverished families. Matern Child Health J. 2016;20(11):2261-2267. PMID: 27480423. DOI: 10.1007/s10995-016-2133-7.

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Publication year
Resource type
Peer Reviewed Research
Outcomes
Process
Provider Experience of Care
Population
Children and Youth
Health Care Professionals
Social Determinant of Health
Food/Hunger
Health Care Access
Housing Quality
Housing Stability
Transportation
Violence/Safety
Study design
Pre-post without Comparison Group
Keywords