Using telehealth to provide outpatient follow-up to children with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder

Area of Science:

• Behavior Analysis
• Clinical Psychology
• Pediatric Healthcare

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated remote service delivery for children with feeding disorders.
• Telehealth emerged as a viable method for behavior analysts to provide assessment and treatment.
• Previous research indicates the potential of telehealth in behavioral interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the efficacy of telehealth versus in-clinic follow-up for pediatric feeding disorders.
• To compare treatment outcomes for patients with Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder receiving services via different modalities.
• To provide recommendations for implementing telehealth in feeding disorder treatment.

Main Methods:

• Pilot studies analyzing chart records of patients with Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder.
• Comparison of outcomes for participants receiving in-clinic and telehealth follow-up.
• Analysis of goal attainment in exclusively in-clinic versus exclusively telehealth groups.

Main Results:

• Telehealth and in-clinic services demonstrated equivalent outcomes across most measured dimensions.
• No significant differences were found in goal attainment between telehealth and in-clinic groups.
• Pilot data support the effectiveness of telehealth for pediatric feeding disorder treatment.

Conclusions:

• Telehealth is a feasible and effective modality for continuing care for children with feeding disorders.
• Behavior analysts can confidently utilize telehealth for assessment and treatment initiation.
• Recommendations for optimizing telehealth service delivery in feeding disorders are provided.