The medical home: relationships with family functioning for children with and without special health care needs

Abstract

Objective: In this study we tested the association of the medical home with family functioning for children without and with special health care needs (CSHCN).

Methods: We used data from the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health to run multivariate logistic regressions to test the association between having a medical home and family functioning (difficulty with parental coping, parental aggravation, childcare/work issues, and missed school days). We further assessed interactions of CSHCN status with having a medical home.

Results: In adjusted analysis, parents of children with a medical home were less likely to report difficulty with parental coping (odds ratio [OR] 0.26 [0.19-0.36]), parental aggravation (OR 0.54 [0.45-0.65]), childcare/work issues (OR 0.72 [0.61-0.84]), and missed school days (OR 0.87[0.78-0.97]) for their children than those without a medical home. Using interaction terms, we found that for most outcomes, the medical home had a greater association for CSHCN compared with healthy peers, with odds ratios ranging 0.40 (CI 0.22-0.56) for parental aggravation to 0.67 (CI0.52-0.86) for missed school days.

Conclusions: We show that the medical home is associated with better family functioning. All children may benefit from receiving care in a medical home, but CSHCN, who have greater needs, may particularly benefit from this enhanced model of care.