Deterrents to well-child supervision.

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
An interview and record-review study of 246 Negro and white mothers of 10-month-old children enrolled in the well-baby clinic of a southern university hospital Identified certain deterrents to well-child supervision. Less than 2% of this medically indigent group obtained for their children the amount of preventive pediatric care recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Over 70% of the mothers missed one or more appointments in the clinic; only about 23% of the children had received the expected number of immunizations by 9 mo. of age. Mothers whose children received less preventive care were less educated, married to less educated men in the lowest occupational stratum, of higher parity, and living farther away from the clinic. They owned fewer automobiles, and listed more difficulties interfering with attendance at the clinic. They were less impressed with the purposes and potentialities of well-child care, felt more powerless and socially isolated, and perceived the growth and development of their children as less rapid than that of others. They were less apt to qualify their answers to questions, and less specifically critical of the clinic. It was also demonstrated in the study that maternal and child health care-seeking tends to form a consistent pattern for individual mothers.

This publication has 6 references indexed in Scilit: