Low-income parents' views on the redesign of well-child care.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the perspectives of low-income parents on redesigning well-child care (WCC) for children aged 0 to 3 years, focusing on possible changes in 3 major domains: providers, locations, and formats.


METHODS
Eight focus groups (4 English and 4 Spanish) were conducted with 56 parents of children aged 6 months to 5 years, recruited through a federally qualified health center. Discussions were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed by using the constant comparative method of qualitative analysis.


RESULTS
Parents were mostly mothers (91%), nonwhite (64% Latino, 16% black), and <30 years of age (66%) and had an annual household income of <$35000 (96%). Parents reported substantial problems with WCC, focusing largely on limited provider access (especially with respect to scheduling and transportation) and inadequate behavioral/developmental services. Most parents endorsed nonphysician providers and alternative locations and formats as desirable adjuncts to usual physician-provided, clinic-based WCC. Nonphysician providers were viewed as potentially more expert in behavioral/developmental issues than physicians and more attentive to parent-provider relationships. Some alternative locations for care (especially home and day care visits) were viewed as creating essential context for providers and dramatically improving family convenience. Alternative locations whose sole advantage was convenience (eg, retail-based clinics), however, were viewed more skeptically. Among alternative formats, group visits in particular were seen as empowering, turning parents into informal providers through mutual sharing of behavioral/developmental advice and experiences.


CONCLUSIONS
Low-income parents of young children identified major inadequacies in their WCC experiences. To address these problems, they endorsed a number of innovative reforms that merit additional investigation for feasibility and effectiveness.
Coker
Tumaini R
TR
Department of Pediatrics, Mattel Children's Hospital,, School of Public Health, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90024, USA. tcoker@mednet.ucla.edu
Chung
Paul J
PJ
Cowgill
Burton O
BO
Chen
Leian
L
Rodriguez
Michael A
MA
D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D017144:Focus Groups; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D015141:Los Angeles; D010290:Parents; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011203:Poverty; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*