Child & adolescent health

Group Health Research Institute (GHRI) researchers from a variety of disciplines work together to find ways to prevent and treat illness in children. Studies span infancy to adolescence, with investigators discovering ways to boost parenting skills, enhance safety, and improve care for chronic conditions such as asthma, depression, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Patient safety is a big concern because most research in medicine and health care focuses only on adults. "Children are not just miniature adults; their preventive needs are often quite different from those of adults," says David C. Grossman, MD, MPH, senior investigator at Group Health Research Institute and medical director of preventive care at Group Health. "We are also beginning to appreciate how child and adolescent health behavior can be associated with later adult disease and injury. Research into how to modify behavior at much earlier ages may lead to important interventions that start with early childhood and adolescence."

Because a relatively high proportion of American children live in poverty, the GHRI investigators are also exploring ways to improve health care for disadvantaged youngsters. GHRI senior investigator Paula Lozano, MD, MPH, developed a way of measuring the cultural competence of different practice sites, including the diversity of the staff—from the receptionists to the physicians—and their ability to communicate clearly with various ethnic groups. The higher a site's cultural competence, the investigators have found, the more fully the health needs of the low-income children are met.

Finding ways to accurately estimate the health needs of children in a given population is another important area of inquiry. "Without good pediatric models for estimating relative disease severity among children, health care systems may underestimate demand," explains economist Paul Fishman, PhD, senior investigator at GHRI. "The result can be reduced reimbursement and inadequate health care for chronically ill children."

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GHRI researchers in child & adolescent health

Affiliate researchers

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Recent publications on child & adolescent health

2010

Grow HM, Cook AJ, Arterburn DE, Saelens BE, Drewnowski A, Lozano P. Child obesity associated with social disadvantage of children's neighborhoods. Soc Sci Med. 2010 Aug;71(3):584-91. Epub 2010 May 12. PubMed

Katon W, Richardson L, Russo J, McCarty CA, Rockhill C, McCauley E, Richards J, Grossman DC. Depressive symptoms in adolescence: the association with multiple health risk behaviors. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2010;32(3):233-9. Epub 2010 Mar 1. PubMed

Lozano P, McPhillips HA, Hartzler B, Robertson AS, Runkle C, Scholz KA, Stout JW, Kieckhefer GM. Randomized trial of teaching brief motivational interviewing to pediatric trainees to promote healthy behaviors in families. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2010;164(6):561-6. PubMed

Quistberg DA, Lozano P, Mack CD, Schwartz R, Ebel BE. A comparison of self-report and direct observation of booster seat use in Latino families. Inj Prev. 2010 May 25. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed

Richardson LP, Rockhill C, Russo JE, Grossman DC, Richards J, McCarty C, McCauley E, Katon W. Evaluation of the PHQ-2 as a brief screen for detecting major depression among adolescents. Pediatrics. 2010;125(5):e1097-103. Epub 2010 Apr 5. PubMed

Smith MS, Buchwald D, Bogart A, Goldberg J, Smith WR, Afari N. Adolescent offspring of mothers with chronic fatigue syndrome. J Adolesc Health. 2010;46(3):284-291. Epub 2009 Oct 13. PubMed

2009

Jackson LA, Yu O, Nelson J, Belongia EA, Hambidge SJ, Baxter R, Naleway A, Nordin J, Baggs J, Iskander J. Risk of medically attended local reactions following diphtheria toxoid containing vaccines in adolescents and young adults: A Vaccine Safety Datalink study. Vaccine. 2009;27(36):4912-6. Epub 2009 Jun 28. PubMed

2008

Bonomi AE, Anderson ML, Rivara FP, Cannon EA, Fishman PA, Carrell D, Reid RJ, Thompson RS. Health care utilization and costs associated with childhood abuse. J Gen Intern Med. 2008;23(3):294-9. Epub 2008 Jan 19. PubMed

Richardson LP, Russo JE, Lozano P, McCauley E, Katon W. The effect of comorbid anxiety and depressive disorders on health care utilization and costs among adolescents with asthma. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2008;30(5):398-406. Epub 2008 Aug 3. PubMed

Thompson WW, Price C, Goodson B, Shay DK, Benson P, Hinrichsen VL, Lewis E, Eriksen E, Ray P, Marcy SM, Dunn J, Jackson LA, Lieu TA, Black S, Stewart G, Weintraub ES, Davis RL, DeStefano F. Early thimerosal exposure and neuropsychological outcomes at 7 to 10 years. N Engl J Med. 2007;357(13):1281-92. PubMed

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Our major research interests

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