Maternal and Child Health Library

This and past issues of the MCH Alert are available at http://www.mchlibrary.info/alert/archives.html

October 23, 2009

1. NEW EDITION OF EPSDT KNOWLEDGE PATH AVAILABLE

The new edition of Knowledge Path: Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) Services is an electronic guide to resources about providing and strengthening EPSDT services. The knowledge path, produced by the Maternal and Child (MCH) Library at Georgetown University, contains information on Web sites, publications, distance learning resources, and databases. Guidelines for the frequency, timing, and content of health-promotion and disease-prevention services for infants, children, and adolescents are provided. Separate sections present resources for professionals (health professionals, program administrators, policymakers, and researchers) and for families. A special topics area lists resources about oral health services as part of the EPSDT benefit. The knowledge path is available at http://www.mchlibrary.info/KnowledgePaths/kp_EPSDT.html

MCH Library knowledge paths on other maternal and child health topics are available at http://www.mchlibrary.info/KnowledgePaths/index.html. The MCH Library welcomes feedback on the usefulness and value of these knowledge paths. A feedback form is available at http://www.mchlibrary.info/feedback/index.html

• From 2002 to 2008, the percentage of schools in which students could not purchase candy or salty snacks increased in 37 of 40 states.
• Among the 34 states with weighted data for both 2006 and 2008, the percentage of schools in which students could not purchase candy or salty snacks varied widely (18.2 percent to 88.2 percent).
• Compared with 2006, in 2008 the percentage of secondary schools in which students could not purchase soda pop was significantly higher in all 34 states, and the percentage of schools in which students could not purchase sports drinks was significantly higher in 23 states.
• Among the 34 states in 2008, the percentage of schools in which students could not purchase soda pop (range: 25.6 percent to 92.8 percent) or sports drinks (range: 22.7 percent to 84.8 percent) also varied widely.

• Overall, the proportion of CSHCN who met the core outcome increased from 59.6 percent to 62.0 percent from 2001 to 2005-2006.
• The likelihood of meeting the core outcome increased with income.
• Children in families whose primary language was not English were much less likely to meet the core outcome than were children in English-speaking families.
• The greater the reported impact of a child's condition, the less likely the child was to meet the core outcome.
• Among insured children, those who were privately insured were more likely than their publicly insured counterparts not to meet the core outcome.
• Families whose children did not meet the core outcome were almost three times more likely than other families to have at least one unmet need, more than twice as likely to have problems obtaining a needed referral, almost twice as likely to lack a usual source of care and a personal doctor or nurse, and more than three times more likely to experience financial problems. These differences remained significant after adjusting for confounders.
• CSHCN were significantly less likely to meet the core outcome than children without special health care needs.