Continuity of Care in Infancy and Early Childhood Health Outcomes.

ABSTRACT: Continuity of care is a key aspect of the patient-centered medical home and improves pediatric outcomes. Health care reform requires high-quality data to demonstrate its continued value. We hypothesized that increased provider continuity in infancy will reduce urgent health care use and increase receipt of preventive services in early childhood. Continuity, using the Usual Provider of Care measure, was calculated across all primary care encounters during the first year of life in a prospectively-constructed cohort of 17 773 infants receiving primary care from birth through 3 years at 30 clinics. Health care utilization and preventive care outcomes were measured from ages 1 to 3 years. Confounders, including chronic conditions, number of sick visits in the first year, socioeconomic status,

SUBMITTER: Enlow E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5495533 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature