# Prevalence and correlates of pediatric guideline deviation across 9 health facilities

> **NIH NIH R03** · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · 2020 · $77,750

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
An estimated 15,000 children under the age of five die every day. Primary causes of mortality include pneumonia
and diarrhea, and nearly half of deaths are attributable to undernutrition. These syndromes all have available
interventions to reduce mortality, however in many settings acutely ill children are not provided necessary
evidence-based care. It is estimated that over half of child deaths are preventable with simple, existing,
appropriately applied evidence-based interventions. Pediatric clinical treatment guidelines synthesize evidence
to ensure that all children are treated with high quality care. Yet, fidelity to guidelines is variable and guideline
knowledge exceeds adherence to recommendations. The objective of this study is to describe and evaluate the
complex factors influencing pediatric guideline deviation in low-and-middle-income countries where most
preventable pediatric deaths occur. This evidence is crucial for developing appropriate implementation strategies
that can effectively improve pediatric quality of care in low-resource settings. This study involves both secondary
data analysis and primary data collection and is nested within the Childhood Acute Illness and Nutrition (CHAIN)
project, which has established a global research network to investigate risk factors for death in acutely ill children.
This study will utilize existing CHAIN cohort data from nine health facilities in six countries to evaluate the
frequency with which health providers deviate from established pediatric treatment guidelines, and factors that
influence deviation. We will extract diagnostic and treatment criteria from each of the six country national
guidelines, specifically for pneumonia, diarrhea, and severe acute malnutrition (SAM) sub-syndromes. We will
map these criteria across CHAIN cohort data to identify the frequency with which providers deviate from the
national guidelines on which they have been trained. We will additionally analyze CHAIN intake data to identify
patient-level, provider-level, and contextual factors influencing provider deviation from guidelines. This will
generate valuable information regarding multi-level factors that influence clinical decision making.
Findings regarding the prevalence of guideline deviation across CHAIN will be used to identify the CHAIN site
with the lowest observed guideline adherence across targeted syndromes. Primary qualitative data collection
will take place in this site wherein health providers and supervisors will participate in focus group discussions
(FGDs). Qualitative data collection and analysis will be guided by the Theoretical Domains Framework, an
implementation science framework that can be applied to identify determinants of behavior. The combination of
secondary data analysis and primary data collection will allow for triangulation between self-reported influences
and observed influences of guideline deviation. This study is an innovative approach to rapidly understand the
c...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10019583
- **Project number:** 5R03HD099270-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Arianna Rubin Means
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $77,750
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-17 → 2022-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10019583

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10019583, Prevalence and correlates of pediatric guideline deviation across 9 health facilities (5R03HD099270-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10019583. Licensed CC0.

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