Improving Cardiometabolic Monitoring of Children on Antipsychotics

This study evaluated changes in cardiometabolic monitoring for children and adolescents who were prescribed an antipsychotic medication in a state mental health system before and after a quality improvement intervention.

The intervention included education for prescribers, auditing on metabolic monitoring, and feedback to mental health center leaders regarding their monitoring. Research staff extracted yearly data on cardiometabolic monitoring from randomly selected community mental health center records before and after the intervention. Pre- and postintervention changes in monitoring were assessed with chi-squared tests.

Evidence of past year monitoring increased: for glucose 18.9%-42.1% (χ² = 6.75, p < 0.001), for triglycerides 13.5%-31.0% (χ² = 4.54, p = 0.033), for cholesterol 13.5%-33.1% (χ² = 5.48, p = 0.019), and for weight 67.6%-84.1% (χ² = 5.21, p = 0.022). Rates of monitoring for blood pressure and waist circumference increased but not significantly. In both years studied, weight was obtained most frequently and waist circumference was obtained least frequently.

Monitoring rates significantly improved for four out of six parameters evaluated, but overall monitoring rates remained low at the end of the study period. Prescriber education with audit and feedback may improve cardiometabolic monitoring rates, but research is needed to evaluate barriers to monitoring in children.