title: Mothers' Employment Attributes and Use of Preventive Child Health Services.
abstract: This study examines whether paid sick leave and hours worked per week are associated with receipt of recommended well-child visits, preventive dental care, influenza vaccines, obesity screening, and vision screening among U.S. children aged 0 to 17 years whose mothers were employed using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Residual inclusion instrumental variables methods were used to address unobserved confounding related to maternal employment and child health care use. Instruments were the industry-specific mean of paid leave and hours worked. Fewer than half of children received the recommended number of well-child visits and dental care; only 14% of children received an influenza vaccine in the past year. Paid sick leave was associated with increased adherence to recommended well-child visits (marginal probability, 0.12; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.23, 0.01), preventive dental care (marginal probability, 0.28; 95% CI = 0.34, 0.33), and receipt of the influenza vaccine (marginal probability, 0.09; 95% CI = 0.13, 0.05 ).
authors.affiliation: 1 University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
authors.forename: Megan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shepherd-Banigan
authors.affiliation: 2 University of California Davis, Sacramento, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Janice F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Bell
authors.affiliation: 1 University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
authors.forename: Anirban
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Basu
authors.affiliation: 1 University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
authors.forename: Cathryn
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Booth-LaForce
authors.affiliation: 1 University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Harris
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003729:Dental Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018582:Sick Leave / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: child health; maternal employment policies; pediatric preventive care