Caregivers' Views of a Pediatric Inpatient Intervention to Address Health-Related Social Risks.

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Health
• Social Determinants of Health
• Health Intervention Research

Background:

• Hospitalized children often face health-related social risks (HRSRs) like food insecurity.
• Social care interventions aim to connect families with community resources.
• Understanding caregiver experiences is crucial for effective intervention delivery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore caregiver experiences with the CommunityRx-Hunger intervention for hospitalized children.
• To identify barriers and facilitators in delivering social care information.
• To gather recommendations for sensitive communication of HRSRs in pediatric care.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative interviews with 23 caregivers of hospitalized children in an urban academic medical center.
• Participants were from the intervention arm of the CommunityRx-Hunger randomized controlled trial.
• Directed content analysis was used to analyze interview data.

Main Results:

• Caregivers reported positive experiences with CommunityRx-Hunger, appreciating the availability of community resources.
• Concerns about clinicians using disclosed HRSRs against them were identified as a barrier.
• Caregivers recommended providing resource information directly, without probing for needs.

Conclusions:

• The CommunityRx-Hunger intervention was generally well-received by caregivers.
• Routinely offering resource information to all families can mitigate concerns about privacy and disclosure of HRSRs.
• This approach can improve the integration of social care into pediatric medical settings.