Effects of immediate telephone follow-up with providers on sweat chloride test timing after cystic fibrosis newborn screening identifies a single mutation. J Pediatr 2013 Mar;162(3):522-9
Date
10/30/2012Pubmed ID
23102590Pubmed Central ID
PMC3582754DOI
10.1016/j.jpeds.2012.08.055Scopus ID
2-s2.0-84874646737 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 7 CitationsAbstract
OBJECTIVE: To assess whether reporting "possible cystic fibrosis (CF)" newborn screening (NBS) results via fax plus simultaneous telephone contact with primary care providers (PCPs) versus fax alone influenced 3 outcomes: undergoing a sweat chloride test, age at sweat chloride testing, and undergoing sweat testing before age 8 weeks.
STUDY DESIGN: This was a retrospective cohort comparison of infants born in Wisconsin whose PCP received a telephone intervention (n = 301) versus recent historical controls whose PCP did not (n = 355). Intervention data were collected during a longitudinal research and quality improvement effort; deidentified comparison data were constructed from auxiliary NBS tracking information. Parametric and nonparametric statistical analyses were performed for group differences.
RESULTS: Most infants (92%) with "possible CF" NBS results whose PCP lacked telephone intervention ultimately underwent sweat testing, underlining efficacy for fax-only reporting. Telephone intervention was significantly associated with improvements in the infants undergoing sweat testing at age ≤6 weeks and <8 weeks and a slight, statistically nonsignificant 3.5-day reduction in the infants' age at sweat testing. The effect of telephone intervention was greater for PCPs whose patients underwent sweat testing at community-affiliated medical centers versus those whose patients did so at academic medical centers (P = .008).
CONCLUSION: Reporting "possible CF" NBS results via fax plus simultaneous telephone follow-up with PCPs increases the rate of sweat chloride testing before 8 weeks of age, when affected infants are more likely to receive full benefits of early diagnosis and treatment.
Author List
La Pean A, Farrell MH, Eskra KL, Farrell PMMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
ChloridesCohort Studies
Cystic Fibrosis
Female
Health Communication
Humans
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Male
Mutation
Neonatal Screening
Physician-Patient Relations
Physicians, Primary Care
Research Design
Retrospective Studies
Sweat
Telefacsimile
Telephone
Wisconsin
