Published online March 2, 2009
PEDIATRICS Vol. 123 No. 3 March 2009, pp. 966-971 (doi:10.1542/peds.2008-1321)
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow View responses
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow E-mail this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Golnik, A.
Right arrow Articles by Borowsky, I. W.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Golnik, A.
Right arrow Articles by Borowsky, I. W.
Related Collections
Right arrow Premature & Newborn
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Facebook   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

ARTICLE

Medical Homes for Children With Autism: A Physician Survey

Allison Golnik, MD, MPH, Marjorie Ireland, PhD and Iris Wagman Borowsky, MD, PhD

Division of General Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota

BACKGROUND. Primary care physicians can enhance the health and quality of life of children with autism by providing high-quality and comprehensive primary care.

OBJECTIVE. To explore physicians’ perspectives on primary care for children with autism.

METHODS. National mail and e-mail surveys were sent to a random sample of 2325 general pediatricians and 775 family physicians from April 2007 to October 2007.

RESULTS. The response rate was 19%. Physicians reported significantly lower overall self-perceived competency, a greater need for primary care improvement, and a greater desire for education for children with autism compared with both children with other neurodevelopmental conditions and those with chronic/complex medical conditions. The following barriers to providing primary care were endorsed as greater for children with autism: lack of care coordination, reimbursement and physician education, family skeptical of traditional medicine and vaccines, and patients using complementary alternative medicine. Adjusting for key demographic variables, predictors of both higher perceived autism competency and encouraging an empirically supported therapy, applied behavior analysis, included having a greater number of autism patient visits, having a friend or relative with autism, and previous training about autism.

CONCLUSIONS. Primary care physicians report a lack of self-perceived competency, a desire for education, and a need for improvement in primary care for children with autism. Physician education is needed to improve primary care for children with autism. Practice parameters and models of care should address physician-reported barriers to care.

Key Words: autism • medical home • physician survey • primary care

Abbreviations: CAM—complementary alternative medicine • CME—continuing medical education • ABA—applied behavior analysis

Accepted Jul 14, 2008.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Facebook Facebook   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


eLetters:

Read all eLetters

Physicians Feel Ill-Equipped To Treat Autism - is this a surprise?
Kenneth P Stoller
Pediatrics Online, 3 Mar 2009 [Full text]