Grant: Project Grant

Preventive health care is critical for health and development, especially in the first 6 years of life, when brain development is rapid and children are preparing for school. Well-child visits, the primary vehicle for preventive health care delivery, offer opportunities for providers to do physical exams, assess development, give immunizations, make referrals for eye exams, connect families with resources, and address caregiver concerns. Long-term physical health, educational, and economic outcomes are improved in children with good preventive health care access, with benefits greatest in those with low socioeconomic status. Yet, even in universal health care systems, some families still experience barriers accessing child preventive health care. One such group may be children of women with disabilities. We have been doing research on women with disabilities in pregnancy and up to their infant's first birthday, showing that mothers with disabilities experience disparities in prenatal and infant health care, with inaccessible spaces, communication problems with providers, and negative provider attitudes being common barriers. These could also be barriers to early child preventive health care, but this has not been studied. We will extend this research by using health records data on all children in Ontario, and interviews with women with disabilities, service-providers, and decision-makers, to study preventive health care access in 1 to 6-year-old children of women with disabilities. A disability lens in child health care should take a family-centred approach that considers not just the needs of the child but also those of the parent, in this case the mother. If inequities in preventive health care access are seen in children of women with disabilities, this would provide evidence needed to create tailored supports for these families, which could positively impact the health of Canadian children.