PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Elizabeth R. Wolf
AU  - Jennifer O’Neil
AU  - James Pecsok
AU  - Rebecca S. Etz
AU  - Douglas J. Opel
AU  - Richard Wasserman
AU  - Alex H. Krist
TI  - Caregiver and Clinician Perspectives on Missed Well-Child Visits
AID  - 10.1370/afm.2466
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - The Annals of Family Medicine
PG  - 30--34
VI  - 18
IP  - 1
4099  - http://www.annfammed.org/content/18/1/30.short
4100  - http://www.annfammed.org/content/18/1/30.full
SO  - Ann Fam Med2020 Jan 01; 18
AB  - PURPOSE Despite the benefits of well-child care visits, up to one-half of these visits are missed. Little is known about why children miss them, so we undertook a qualitative study to elucidate these factors.METHODS We interviewed 17 caregivers whose children had missed well-child visits and 6 clinicians, focusing on 3 areas: the value of well-child visits, barriers to attendance, and facilitators of attendance. Transcripts were analyzed with a grounded theory approach and thematic analysis.RESULTS Caregivers and clinicians identified similar important aspects of well-child visits: immunizations, detection of disease, and monitoring of growth and development. Both groups identified similar barriers to attendance: transportation, difficulty taking time off from work, child care, and other social stressors.CONCLUSIONS Further work to explore how addressing social determinants of health might improve attendance of well-child visits is needed.