Missed Opportunities in Pediatric Feeding Clinic: A Multivariate Analysis.
Amy Ricketts, Dana M Bakula, Sarah Edwards and 8 others
PMID 40990888WHAT IT FOUND
30.2% of first scheduled pediatric feeding clinic appointments for children aged 4 or less were missed.
Longer scheduling lead time, prior missed visits, marginalized population, and no prescription medication use were associated with nonattendance.
Key findings
01Of 487 appointments analyzed, 30.2% were not attended; 53.1% of missed visits were cancellations and 46.9% were no-shows.
02Attended appointments had a shorter mean lead time (60.86 days) than nonattended appointments (76.83 days), and each extra day of lead time was associated with a 0.5% increase in did-not-attend status.
03The final model included lead time, medication use, child race, and previous nonattendance, explained 13.6% of variance, and correctly classified 71.7% of cases.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
This was a single-site retrospective chart review, so the patterns may not apply to other feeding clinics. Only children aged 4 or less were included, so it does not cover older children referred to the clinic. Some records were missing, especially birth history; 21.1% of cases lacked birth weight documentation. The model explained 13.6% of variance, so many factors affecting attendance were not captured. The study did not test an intervention, so it cannot show that changing lead time or contacting families will reduce missed visits. Possible confounders such as winter weather were not evaluated.
Declared interests
The authors reported no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat lead time, race, medication use, or prior missed visits as proven causes of nonattendance. This was a single-site retrospective chart review, the model did not capture many factors affecting attendance, and no intervention was tested.