Numerous U.S. state legislatures have proposed bills to ban gender-affirming medical interventions for minors. Parents and caregivers play a critical role in advocating for and supporting their transgender and gender-diverse youth (TGDY). We aimed to understand parent and caregiver…

Our objectives were to 1) quantify the frequency of wheezing episodes and asthma diagnosis in young children in a large pediatric primary care network and 2) assess the variability in practice-level asthma diagnosis, accounting for common asthma risk factors and comorbidities. We…

Poor mental health remains a significant source of morbidity and mortality in the Bhutanese refugee community. Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is a promising intervention that has been used in other immigrant communities to prepare individuals to recognize and respond to mental health…

Ninety percent of smokers start as teens and consequently, youth are one of the tobacco industry’s primary targets. Fortunately, over the last several years, there has been a dramatic decline in youth cigarette use, but those gains have been challenged by the introduction of e…

As part of the PA Family Support Needs Assessment, PolicyLab assessed county-level data from eight related indicators—outlined in this brief—of substance use, the impacts of opioid use in pregnancy, and risks for people in the postpartum period to offer broad insight into opportunities…

Between January 2019 and October 2020, PolicyLab collaborated with the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning to complete the 2020 Family Support Needs Assessment, which describes a wide range of social, environmental, and health factors impacting the well-being of…

As we approach another presidential election, pediatricians across the country will once again be called upon to lend their voice and expertise to child health policy discussions. It is therefore both timely and relevant to consider the variety of roles that pediatricians can play in…

Pollen from trees, grasses, and weeds can trigger asthma exacerbation in sensitized individuals. However, there are gaps in knowledge about the effects, such as the relative risks from different plant taxa and threshold levels of effect. We aimed to describe the local association…

OBJECTIVES: Guidelines recommend universal screening for developmental concerns in young children in pediatric primary care, with referral to early intervention (EI) as early as possible for children with a positive screen. However, participation in EI differs by child race, ethnicity…

We present the case of a child of color diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at 67 months of age. Drawing from behavioral economics, we used this case to explore errors in decision-making by clinicians and family members and structural factors that may have delayed ASD…