Compliance with well-child visit recommendations: evidence from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, 2000-2002

This study examines national compliance rates with well-child visit recommendations using the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey provides nationally representative information on preventative care for children, combining visit-level data over a 2-year period with a rich array of socioeconomic and health status measures.

Visit-level data from 2000 to 2002 were used to construct a well-child visit "compliance" measure equal to well-child visits as a percentage of age-specific recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics. Compliance was examined across age, gender, race/ethnicity, health status, poverty, insurance coverage, eligibility for public coverage, family structure, parent education, insurance, citizenship and country of origin, language, urbanicity, and census division.

On average, 56.3% of all children aged 0 to 18 years had no well-child visits during a 12-month period, and 39.4% had no well-child visits over a 2-year period. The average compliance ratio was 61.4%. Large differences in compliance exist among children. High compliance rates were observed among infants (83.2%), children with special health care needs (86.6%), children with college-educated parents (74.3%), children with family incomes >4 times the poverty level (71.6%), and children in the New England (94.6%) and Middle Atlantic (83.2%) census divisions. Low levels of compliance were observed among uninsured children (35.3%) and especially uninsured children simulated to be eligible for public coverage (28.4%). Other groups with low compliance rates include teenagers (49.2%), noncitizen children (43.9%), and children in the West South Central (44.9%), East South Central (48.8%), and Mountain (49.7%) census divisions.

Well-child visit compliance in the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey is less than found in other household surveys, yet consistent with or above results based on data from provider and claims data. Although experts dispute the optimal frequency of well-child visits, the disparities observed in compliance rates among population subgroups raise important public health concerns.