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National Survey on CSHCN

Monitoring the Maternal and Child Health Bureau's Core
Outcomes for Children with Special Health Care Needs
:

The National Survey of CSHCN (SLAITS) was sponsored
by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau and conducted
by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) National Center
for Health Statistics (NHCS)

Purpose of the National Survey:

  • To produce national and state level estimates of the prevalence of special health care needs and their impact on children and families
  • Explore the extent to which children with special health care needs (CSHCN) have medical homes, adequate health insurance, and access to needed services. Other topics include care coordination and satisfaction with care.
  • Assess how well the system works form the perspective of families
About the Survey:
  • Screened 200,000 families to identify CSHCN.
  • 40,000 CSHCN; 750 in each state
  • Conducted from Oct 2000 to March 2002
  • Planned repetition in 2006 and 2010

To view the survey instrument click here: SLAITS
(State and Local Area Integrated Telephone Survey)


Indicators of a Medical Home in the Survey

  1. Child/Youth has a usual source of care and a personal doctor or nurse
  2. The family experiences no problems in obtaining referrals for specialists
  3. Effective care coordination is available when needed
  4. Receiving care that is family-centered
    • Spend enough time
    • Sensitive to culture
    • Listen carefully
    • Provide needed information
    • Make family feel like a partner

How well are we doing meeting the needs of CSHCN and their families?

  1. All CSHCN will receive regular ongoing comprehensive care within a medical home. Percent of CSHCN Meeting Goal: 51%

  2. All families of CSHCN will have adequate public and/or private insurance to pay for the services they need.
    Percent of CSHCN Meeting Goal: 60%
  3. All children will be screened early and continuously for special health care needs.
    Percent of CSHCN Meeting Goal: 52%
  4. Families of CSHCN will participate in decision making at all levels and will be satisfied with the services they receive.
    Percent of CSHCN Meeting Goal: 57%
  5. Community-based service systems will be organized so families can use them easily.
    Percent of CSHCN Meeting Goal: 74%
  6. All youth with special health care needs (YSHCN) will receive the services necessary to make transitions to all aspects of adult life. Percent of CSHCN Meeting Goal: 6%

Where's the DATA?

The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and at the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), have recently published a chart book featuring summary data from the National Survey of CSHCN.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Maternal and Child Health Bureau. The National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs Chartbook 2001. Rockville, Maryland: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2004.

Individual copies of this report are available at no cost from the HRSA Information Center, 2070 Chain Bridge Road, Suite 450, Vienna, VA 22182-2536, 1-888-ASK-HRSA or (703) 442-9051.

Data Resource Center on Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (CYSHCN)
This site provides data, tips and tools to use with data for states and families to help guide improvements in community-based systems of care for CYSHCN.

You will find a variety of resources on this site - including an easy to use, interactive data query feature that allows users to view and compare state, regional and nationwide findings from the National Survey of CSHCN, a survey sponsored by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau. Educational materials about the survey as well as state-specific profiles of key performance indicators based on data from the National Survey of CSHCN are also available. www.cshcndata.org

New Interactive Data Searches
State and national data results on public/private insurance coverage, CSHCN with emotional, developmental or behavioral issues, and additional questions from the Impact on the Family section of the National Survey of CSHCN can be searched through the interactive data query feature on the Data Resource Center web site. cshcndata.org/dataquery/SurveyAreas.aspx

State-specific Datasets from the 2001 National Survey of CSHCN Interview can now be downloaded from the Data Resource Center web site. Available in either SPSS or SAS format, these cleaned and labeled datasets contain Interview results for 750 CSHCN in each state. Many new variables, key state indicators and MCHB outcomes measures are included. cshcndata.org/Content/States.aspx

Official Web site for the National Survey for CSHCN from NHCS
Additional information about the National Survey of CSHCN, including links to the data sets, can be found at: www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/major/slaits/cshcn.htm  

Comparing States Using Survey Data on Health Care Services for CSHCN (NCHS, 11/18/03)
To assist researchers who are looking for national and state-level estimates for key indicators from the survey, NCHS has recently posted a presentation on these estimates to its web site. The title of the presentation is “Comparing States Using Survey Data on Health Care Services for CSHCN,” by Dr. Stephen Blumberg. The presentation is available in pdf format. Depending on your version of Adobe Acrobat, you may have to rotate the presentation clockwise to view it properly on your computer.

    This presentation was part of an invited session on the National Survey of CSHCN at the Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology Conference in Tempe, Arizona December 10, 2003. Questions about the presentation should be addressed to Dr. Blumberg at sblumberg@cdc.gov.

    Additional publications and presentations using SLAITS data can be found on the Publications and Presentations web page.

Publications and Presentations

The National Survey of Children's Health: A New Data Resource
Maternal and Child Health Journal, vol, 8, No. 3, September 2004. Peter C. van Dyck MD, MPH, Michael Kogan, PhD, David Heppel, MD, Stephen J. Blumberg, PhD, Marcie L. Cynamon, MA, and Paul Newacheck, DrPH.

Prevalence and Characteristics of Children with Special Health Care Needs. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, vol 158, September 2004. Peter C. van Dyck MD, MPH, Michael Kogan, PhD, Merle McPherson MD, Gloria R. Weissman, MA, Paul W. Newacheck, DrPH. Full Text.

The National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs. Ambulatory Pediatrics. Peter C. van Dyck MD, MPH, Merle McPherson MD, Bonnie B. Strickland PhD, Kerry Nesseler RN, MS, Stephen J. Blumberg PhD, Marcie L. Cynamon MA, and Paul W. Newacheck DrPH, vol 2, 2002,pages 29–37. Full TextAdobe PDF

Identifying Children With Special Health Care Needs: Development and Evaluation of a Short Screening Instrument. Ambulatory Pediatrics. Christina D. Bethell PhD, MBA, MPH, Debra Read MPH, Ruth E. K. Stein MD, Stephen J. Blumberg PhD, Nora Wells MEd, and Paul W. Newacheck DrPH, vol 2, 2002, pages 38–48. Full Text Adobe PDF

Comparison of the Children With Special Health Care Needs Screener to the Questionnaire for Identifying Children With Chronic Conditions—Revised. Ambulatory Pediatrics. Christina D. Bethell PhD, MBA, MPH, Debra Read MPH, John Neff MD, Stephen J. Blumberg PhD, Ruth E. K. Stein MD, Virginia Sharp MA, and Paul W. Newacheck DrPH, vol 2, 2002, pages 49–57. Full Text Adobe PDF

PowerPoint Presentation Microsoft Powerpoint
National CSHCN Survey Final Results, May 2003
Peter C. Van Dyck, MD, MPH

Monitoring MCHBs Six Core Outcomes for CSHCN, Microsoft Powerpoint May 2003
Paul Newacheck, DrPH

Building Community-Based Systems of Care for Children with Special Health Care Needs: A National Perspective.Microsoft Powerpoint
By Paul W. Newacheck, Dr. PH
University of California, San Francisco

State Approaches to Measuring and Monitoring Healthy People 2010 Outcomes for CSHCN - Presented at the AMCHP Annual Meeting- March 2, 2002
Moderator:
Diana Denboba, Public Health Analyst, MCHB
Panelists:
Richard Roberts, Early Intervention Research Institute, Utah State University
Diane Behl, Early Intervention Research Institute, Utah State University
Linda Price, South Carolina Children’s Rehab Services
Pete Bailey, South Carolina Office of Research and Statistics
Sarah O’Brien, South Carolina Children’s Rehab Services

2005-2006 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs
Source: AMCHP Fact Sheet
What’s New for the 2005-2006 Questionnaire?

  • Slightly revised questionnaire to improve measurement of the following topics:
    • Functional limitations
    • Assistance provided to parents with arranging or coordinating care
    • Transition to doctors who treat adults
    • Ease of use of community-based services
  • States have the opportunity to add questions to the survey. States are invited to work with MCHB and SLAITS staff to identify topics that would enhance the survey’s content. The approximate cost to States is $13,000-$15,000 per minute per State. If enough States are interested in the same additional topics, standardized short batteries of questions can be developed to permit interstate comparability. The SLAITS team will work with States to develop the questions and, if necessary, will discuss options for testing those questions.

What’s New for the 2005-2006 Sample?

  • Sample size may be expanded from 750 to 1,000 completed interviews for CSHCN in every state.
  • Design may include a sample of healthy children who will receive an abbreviated questionnaire.
  • States have the opportunity to further increase the sample size. The cost varies widely based on the size of the existing NIS sample for the state. For 500 additional completed interviews, the approximate cost to States is $38,000-$225,000. States expected to have the highest costs for adding sample are AK, AR, CO, IA, ID, KS, KY, MN, MS, NE, NM, OR, SD, UT, and WY.

For more information, view the announcement from MCHB by clicking here. You can also contact SLAITS staff at slaits@cdc.gov, or visit SLAITS online at www.cdc.gov/nchs/slaits.htm, or contact Dr. Michael Kogan, Director of MCHB’s Office of Data and Information Management, at mkogan@hrsa.gov.

Last Updated March 7, 2007

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