Our research initiatives
Our faculty are engaged in a number of research programs to help children achieve greater health throughout their lives. These projects include:
The Starting Early to Prevent Obesity Using Telehealth (StEP OUT)
This program delivers nutrition and parenting support sessions in the primary care setting to Latinx participants receiving support through WIC. As part of the project, interviews will be conducted with WIC staff and participants to adapt the StEP OUT program to better meet their needs. Community members are included in the research project and serve on a community advisory board to provide consistent feedback to the research team.
Breastfeeding Resiliency, Engagement and Empowerment (BFREE)
The BFREE coalition aims to improve breastfeeding education and support through pregnancy, the period following childbirth, and early childhood in four selected communities on Long Island. This helps families meet their breastfeeding goals and reduce racial, ethnic and community differences in breastfeeding rates. To do so, they promote evidence-based breastfeeding educational materials, directly support mothers to meet their breastfeeding goals, work with numerous community members to establish policy and community support for breastfeeding, and work with selected communities to increase breastfeeding initiation, exclusivity and duration.
Feeding Your Baby: A Randomized, Controlled Trial
This study aims to measure the effects of the online breastfeeding promotion tutorial on mothers and infants visiting general pediatrics practices at Cohen Children’s. Feeding Your Baby serves as both a needs assessment and educational tool for new mothers, and it helps pediatricians streamline well-baby visits by promptly identifying and addressing mothers’ specific infant feeding concerns.
In this study, participating mothers are randomly assigned to receive the Feeding Your Baby educational materials with their child’s regular appointment or to receive no additional education materials. Participating mothers then complete a survey to assess the impact of extra educational materials on breastfeeding goals.
New York State Children’s Environmental Health Center of Excellence
Cohen Children’s Medical Center is now a Children’s Environmental Health Center of Excellence on Long Island. This means the Division of General Pediatrics partners with local environmental health organizations, trains pediatrics residents in environmental health, and develops new environmental health projects to better address social determinants of health for the populations we serve.
Implications of COVID-19
The Division of General Pediatrics is committed to understanding the impact of COVID-19 on the families we serve. The Division is conducting a range of research studies to understand the developmental, health, behavioral, and social impacts of COVID-19. These studies include:
- Understanding the impact of early discharge of newborns and mothers on child health outcomes, including breastfeeding status, vaccination status, and visits to their doctors or hospital
- Asking about and addressing the concerns that parents have about the COVID vaccines, both for themselves and for their children
- Describing the shift to telemedicine that occurred during COVID-19 and the potential impact on access to health services
- Learning about the impact caring for patients with COVID-19 had on our physicians and health system trainees.
Addressing the needs of children with medical complexity
Our team is committed to improving care for children with medical complexity. In addition to a dedicated multidisciplinary complex care clinic, we conduct research aimed at better understanding the experiences of children with medical complexity and their caregivers. We subsequently design and test interventions to improve systems of care for these patients and their families.
Community Health Workers and Mobile Health for Emerging Adults Transitioning Sickle Cell Disease Care (COMETS trial)
The Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), the Division of General Pediatrics and the Division of Hematology at Cohen Children’s—along with four nationally renowned children’s hospitals—have partnered for a project that seeks to better support young adults with sickle cell disease as they transition from pediatric to adult health care.
In this trial, two different novel support methods—a community health worker intervention and a mobile health application—are being compared to usual clinical care to determine the best ways to improve the patient’s quality of life during this transition. Study participants are randomly assigned to one of the support methods or regular care with their provider. They are also asked to complete a survey four times over the course of an 18-month period.
Long-Term Care Planning for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities and their Families
With funding provided by the Donaghue Foundation and Rx Foundation, the team has developed an evidence-based web tool to assist families of those with intellectual and developmental disabilities to better plan for future care and support. The project conducted a series of focus groups and interviews with primary caregivers, siblings, and individuals with intellectual disabilities to better understand their support needs.
Surveys were also distributed to families across five states that asked questions about barriers and facilitators to plan for the future. With this information, the team developed a novel web-based tool to educate and assist families with planning.
With funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, the team is collaborating with five health systems across the country to test the effectiveness of the website on reducing caregiver burden related to their caregiving responsibilities.
For more information on the studies above or research in the Division of General Pediatrics, please contact Caren Steinway at [email protected].