title: Forging a pediatric primary care-community partnership to support food-insecure families.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Academic primary care clinics often care for children from underserved populations affected by food insecurity. Clinical-community collaborations could help mitigate such risk. We sought to design, implement, refine, and evaluate Keeping Infants Nourished and Developing (KIND), a collaborative intervention focused on food-insecure families with infants.
  
  
  METHODS
  Pediatricians and community collaborators codeveloped processes to link food-insecure families with infants to supplementary infant formula, educational materials, and clinic and community resources. Intervention evaluation was done prospectively by using time-series analysis and descriptive statistics to characterize and enumerate those served by KIND during its first 2 years. Analyses assessed demographic, clinical, and social risk outcomes, including completion of preventive services and referral to social work or our medical-legal partnership. Comparisons were made between those receiving and not receiving KIND by using χ2 statistics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During the 2-year study period, 1042 families with infants received KIND. Recipients were more likely than nonrecipients to have completed a lead test and developmental screen (both P < .001), and they were more likely to have received a full set of well-infant visits by 14 months (42.0% vs. 28.7%; P < .0001). Those receiving KIND also were significantly more likely to have been referred to social work (29.2% vs. 17.6%; P < .0001) or the medical-legal partnership (14.8% vs. 5.7%; P < .0001). Weight-for-length at 9 months did not statistically differ between groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A clinical-community collaborative enabled pediatric providers to address influential social determinants of health. This food insecurity-focused intervention was associated with improved preventive care outcomes for the infants served.
authors: Divisions of General and Community Pediatrics andHospital Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio; and andrew.beck1@cchmc.org.
authors: Andrew F
authors: AF
authors: Beck
authors: Divisions of General and Community Pediatrics and.
authors: Adrienne W
authors: AW
authors: Henize
authors: Divisions of General and Community Pediatrics and.
authors: Robert S
authors: RS
authors: Kahn
authors: Freestore Foodbank, Cincinnati, Ohio.
authors: Kurt L
authors: KL
authors: Reiber
authors: Freestore Foodbank, Cincinnati, Ohio.
authors: John J
authors: JJ
authors: Young
authors: Divisions of General and Community Pediatrics andHospital Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio; and.
authors: Melissa D
authors: MD
authors: Klein
mesh_terms: D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities / Q000458:organization & administration*; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D019058:Community Networks / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005192:Family Health; D063105:Food Assistance / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005523:Food Supply; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007228:Infant Nutrition Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control; D007229:Infant Welfare; D009820:Ohio; D011203:Poverty; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D016730:Program Development
keywords: food insecurity; hunger; pediatric; primary care