Elsevier

Ambulatory Pediatrics

Volume 6, Issue 6, 1 November 2006, Pages 352-355
Ambulatory Pediatrics

Research article
Brief reports: Residents and community pediatrics; disparities in complementary and alternative medicine; health pormotion in child care; mental helath screening; primary care providers’ views of research priority
What Do Pediatric Primary Care Providers Think Are Important Research Questions? A Perspective From PROS Providers

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ambp.2006.07.002Get rights and content

Objective

To describe what pediatric primary care providers involved in the Pediatric Research in Office Settings (PROS) research network think are important yet inadequately addressed questions in pediatric primary care research.

Methods

A total of 1785 pediatric primary care providers in the PROS network were asked what they thought were important yet inadequately addressed areas of primary care research. We used a single, open-ended question in a mail survey. Written answers to this question were analyzed by qualitative methods to determine the main themes of interest to pediatric primary care providers.

Results

Overall survey response rate was 48.7%; the open-ended question yielded 1109 individual answers. Six lines of inquiry were identified as being important to these providers: (1) effective counseling techniques to use in anticipatory guidance; (2) strategies to prevent and treat obesity; (3) the effectiveness of well-child care; (4) ongoing management of patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder; (5) the role of the primary care provider in caring for children with mental health needs; and (6) optimal organization of office practices.

Conclusions

The translation of research into practice may be improved by a better understanding of the needs and interests of those who see pediatric patients in the primary care setting.

Section snippets

Study Design and Subjects

This was a qualitative analysis of an open-ended survey question answered by PROS members in 2003. A written survey was mailed to 1785 members of the PROS research network in 2 waves. PROS members are full-time practitioners who participate in practice-based research.

Survey

The survey dealt with a variety of topics that addressed the network’s function and avenues for improvement. It also included one question aimed at assessing practitioners’ views on inadequately addressed primary care issues. This

Results

The response rate to the survey was 48.7% (868 surveys) after 2 waves; 495 respondents (57%) provided 1109 answers by writing 1 to 4 answers. Table 1 shows that those who completed the open-ended question did not differ greatly from the entire group that was surveyed except that males and physicians were more likely to complete the question of interest.

By use of the cutoff criteria described above, we found 6 issues of greatest interest to the respondents: anticipatory guidance, obesity,

Discussion

This study is one of the first to explore the research interests of pediatric primary care providers.

Notably, only 2 of the top research concerns identified by respondents were about a specific illness or condition. ADHD management was an important concern, suggesting that the fairly extensive literature that is available on ADHD is not yet hitting the mark with providers.10, 11, 12, 13, 14 In contrast, there may be less extensive literature on childhood obesity because this has only recently

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Health Resources and Services Administration Maternal and Child Health Bureau, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. We acknowledge the PROS providers that participated in this study, and Reed Lowrie from the University of Chicago Libraries.

References (16)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (33)

  • Family, community and clinic collaboration to treat overweight and obese children: Stanford GOALS-A randomized controlled trial of a three-year, multi-component, multi-level, multi-setting intervention

    2013, Contemporary Clinical Trials
    Citation Excerpt :

    The content is based on methods used in the SPWCP, including instruction and practice in limit setting, modeling behavior, practice to promote enactive mastery, role-playing to overcome barriers, enlisting social support, and general problem solving to overcome environmental, social and cognitive barriers, especially those related to fast food, holidays, difficult family members, and lapses. Pediatricians and other child health professionals rate childhood obesity as a top priority for treatment but identify lack of time, reimbursement, children's and parents' motivation, and support services, and limited effectiveness, confidence and self-efficacy in their own skills, as barriers to addressing the problem [89–94]. Ultimately, providers are left frustrated with few effective tools or resources to help them [95].

View all citing articles on Scopus
1

Drs Chien and Coker contributed equally to this work.

View full text