The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #60073

Mimi Wolff, MSW¹, Jane A. Bernzweig, PhD¹, Neelam Chanda, RN, MSN¹, Abbey Alkon, RN, PhD², and Joanna Farrer, BA¹. (1) Family Health Care Nursing, University of California, San Francisco, California Child Care Health Program, 1322 Webster St. Suite 402, Oakland, CA 94612, (2) Department of Family Health Care Nursing, University of California, San Francisco, 2 Koret Way, Box 0606 Room N411Y, San Francisco, CA 94143-0606

Health and safety is an important component of quality of child care environments, yet few standard assessment tools exist to monitor healthy and safe practices. The Child Care Health Linkages Project is funded by First Five California to evaluate new health consultation services provided in 20 counties. A Health and Safety Checklist was developed to assess levels of compliance with key National Health and Safety Performance Standards. The 66 items include California Licensing Regulations, the Quality Enhancement Project for Infants and Toddlers and other items from Health and Safety Checklists. Subscales include: 1) emergency preparation, 2) food service safety, 3) hygiene, hand-washing and sanitation, 4) outdoor safety, 5) infant/toddler activities. Scoring is based on a 3-point Likert scale: Compliant, Partial Compliance, Not Compliant. An advisory committee of local child care and health experts reviewed the Checklist for face and content validity. The Checklist was pilot-tested and the research staff achieved 90% inter-rater reliability. The Checklist is administered in 136 child care centers once per study year in five California counties. Preliminary results showed that 69% of centers were compliant in emergency preparedness and 64% were compliant in food service safety. However, only 45% of centers were compliant in hygiene, hand-washing and sanitation, 30% in outdoor safety and 37% in infant/toddler activities. Therefore, intervention is needed in several key areas of health and safety. This assessment tool is invaluable for child care and health care professionals to improve the health and safety of children in out-of-home care.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the session the participant will be able to
• Be familiar with the Health and Safety Checklist content areas.
• Describe methods of measure development.
• Understand the importance of assessing health and safety in child care facilities.

Keywords: Child Care, Child Health

Related Web page: www.ucsfchildcarehealth.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.