In 2019, the National Health Commission issued the Capacity Standards for Community Health Service Center (2018 version), which proposed that the 56 common disease species should be offered diagnosis and treatment services by CHSC, but it did not specify the common disease species of children in the community, which to some extent affects the assessment and construction of CHSC capacity in the community.
To investigate and analyze the common childhood disease species and their characteristics in community health services, in order to provide a reference basis for further community child health service capacity building.
In April 2020, a convenience sampling method was adopted to select community health service agencies in 11 different level cities in China as the sample unit. A self-designed questionnaire was administered to cover the subject's basic condition, the common childhood disease conditions suitable for diagnosis and treatment in the community, and their sequencing. Filled out online voluntarily anonymously by child health service personnel at the sample institution, 3 090 cases were successfully investigated. Respondents ranked the common degree of children's related disorders from low to high, assigning 1 to 5 points to each of the top 5 common childhood disorders, which is, assigning 5 points to ranked 1, 1 point to ranked 5, and 0 points to unselected, calculating a total and sorting by total score.
The top 5 disease categories for children in the community were acute upper respiratory infection, diarrhea, bronchitis, pneumonia, and eczema. Of the top 10 ranked community common childhood disorders, 3 were respiratory, 3 were facial and dermatologic, 2 were infectious, and 1 each was a digestive and growth and development related disorder. The top 5 common childhood diseases ranked by different regions, different levels of cities and different posts were consistent, but the ranking order was different, but there were differences in the 6th-10th disease species and order.
The current coverage of common childhood diseases in community health services is high. There is regional, urban, and post heterogeneity in common childhood disease species in communities. Construction of community child health service capacity should be oriented to improve the capacity of diagnosis and treatment service of common childhood diseases in the community, and fully consider the disease species variability in different regions, cities, and posts.
As the main providers of essential pediatric services, the capabilities of community general practitioners (GPs) in managing pediatric patients may directly reflects the overall status of pediatric care services in primary care settings. In China, there are great regional differences in the supply and demand of pediatric services, and the capabilities of primary care settings are unsatisfactory in providing pediatric services. The current encounters and influencing factors of GPs with pediatric patients in suburban districts are worthy of attention.
To understand the status and associated factors of clinical encounters of GPs with pediatric patients in a suburban district of Beijing, providing a reference for the development of tiered diagnosis and treatment of pediatric diseases.
In June 2021, purposive sampling was used to recruit GPs who participated in a training named "Beijing Miyun District Medical Consortium Construction & General Practitioners' Comprehensive Capability Improvement Project" to attend a semi-structured group interview for understanding the status of clinical encounters of GPs with pediatric patients and related influencing factors. The interview results were recorded, and transcribed, then coded using NVivo 12, and analyzed using thematic analysis.
Nineteen GPs (5 men and 14 women) in the age range of 24-51 years〔average age of (33.2±7.6) years〕, attended the interview, 18 of whom had a bachelor degree; 9 had a title of attending physician; 1 had participated in the standardized general practice residency program; 8 had participated in the "3+2" assistant general practitioners training program; 8 had participated in the standardized training before making a career change into general practice. The average years of them working a GP was 1-18 years〔 (6.3±4.8) years on average〕. Four themes emerged from the analysis: (1) Both the numbers of pediatric patients and illnesses encountered by suburban GPs were less than those encountered by their urban counterparts, and pediatric patients encountered by suburban GPs aged greater than or equal to 3 years. (2) Suburban GPs generally had a low level of self-confidence in treating pediatric patients. (3) The major factors negatively affected suburban GPs encountering pediatric patients include the pediatric patient's parents with a lower level of trust in their GP, inadequate capabilities of GPs in managing pediatric patients, high risk of managing pediatric patients, underperformance of nurses, inadequate available pediatric medicines and equipments for laboratory tests in the community, and lack of a clear referral system. (4) The major facilitators for suburban GPs to encounter pediatric patients include managing pediatric patients in the community by pediatricians, and increasing pediatric medicines and equipments for laboratory tests.
The encounters of suburban GPs with pediatric patients in primary care were unsatisfactory due to many problems and challenges. To improve the situation, it is suggested to improve the capabilities of suburban GPs in managing pediatric patients by trainings, the collaboration between GPs and pediatricians, and the tiered system for the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric diseases.
In China, a rational healthcare seeking pattern in children has not yet taken shape amid the active promotion of the implementation of hierarchical medical system, one major cause of which may be inadequate implementation of first contact in primary care settings in children due to poor service capability for children of these institutions. Therefore, it is of great practical significance and application value to analyze the influencing factors of children's intention to seek healthcare in primary healthcare institutions.
To investigate children's intention to seek healthcare in primary healthcare settings and associated determinants, offering insights into the development of a sound and rational healthcare-seeking pattern in children.
Two surveys were conducted during March to July, 2021 using a questionnaire developed based on the Anderson's Behavioral Model of Health Services Use (containing three aspects: demographics of children and their guardians, children's opinions on hospital selection for treatment and associated factors, and intention to seek healthcare in primary care. One survey was offline, with children aged 0-14 years as participants accidental sampled from people in two grade A tertiary general hospitals, three community health centers, and other public places (such as public parks and squares) in Guangzhou's urban areas, and the other one was online, with a purposive sample of age-matched children included in a WeChat group as participants. For collecting information more appropriately, the questionnaire was completed by the children's guardians. Univariate and multivariate ordinal regression were used to identify factors associated with children's intention to seek healthcare in primary care.
Altogether, the results of questionnaires effectively answered by the guardians of 501 children were used for analysis. The prevalence of intending to seek healthcare in primary care in the children was 36.53% (183/501). The prevalence of primarily choosing a primary healthcare setting for initial treatment of common diseases was 26.3% (132/501), which were mainly owing to shorter distance between home and the hospital (83.3%, 110/132), shorter waiting time for treatment (40.9%, 54/132) and having a pediatric or general practice clinic (36.4%, 48/132). Multivariate Logistic regression analysis indicated that the level of intention to seek healthcare in primary care in children was increased if the nearest hospital was a primary hospital instead of a secondary or tertiary hospital〔OR (95%CI) =1.514 (1.060, 2.166) 〕. Visiting a primary hospital at least four times in the last year was associated with a higher level of intention to seek healthcare in primary care in children compared with visiting a primary hospital zero times〔OR (95%CI) =0.248 (0.111, 0.557) 〕. A higher level of intention to seek healthcare in primary care in children was associated with parents' high level of satisfaction with primary care services instead of parents' fair level of satisfaction with primary care services〔OR (95%CI) =0.348 (0.236, 0.515) ] or parents' dissatisfaction with primary care services〔OR (95%CI) =0.086 (0.043, 0.173) 〕.
In general, the children in Guangzhou mainly seek healthcare in nearby hospitals, and the their level of intention to seek healthcare in a primary hospital could be improved greatly. To improve their satisfaction with primary care services and intention to seek healthcare in primary care settings, it is suggested to further deepen the theoretical research and practical exploration regarding hierarchical diagnosis and treatment, strengthen the cooperation between primary and higher level hospitals for balancing the distribution of pediatric medical resources among hospitals, and to improve the pediatric service capabilities of primary hospitals via improving the software and hardware configuration of these hospitals.
