RE: surveillance bias literature

["Billings, Peggy" <pbillings@xxxxxxxxx>]

Here at KU (GO HAWKS!) we did a program evaluation of a small innovative
program in a rural Kansas community.  TANF families were screened for risk
of child abuse neglect and those families who were at risk and who were not
receiving other services were offered voluntary in-home services.  The
entrée was employment related services for the parent since the referrals
were through TANF but the CPS side of the agency was also involved and
services were provided to families, to parents, and to children.  This was a
controlled study with 27 participating families and 27 control group
families.  The services were provided in families' homes and many families
did not have phones so unscheduled visits were not uncommon.  Despite this
level of surveillance, only 22.2% of participating families experienced
reports of abuse or neglect during the six months following initiation of
services while 48.1% of control families experienced reports of abuse or
neglect.  Substantiation rates for participating families for the same time
period were 11% compared to 22% for control group families.  Participating
families also experienced statistically significant increases in Magura &
Moses' Family Risk Scale scores between case opening and 90 and 180 day
reassessments despite the fact that workers had much more information about
the families' problems at the 90 and 180 day intervals.  While we were not
measuring surveillance bias per se, it is clear that 'surveillance' did not
increase the likelihood of recurrence for participating families.

Peggy Billings, MSW
Research Assistant
School of Social Welfare
University of Kansas
1545 Lilac Lane
Lawrence, KS  66045




  

-----Original Message-----
From: Chaffin, Mark J. [mailto:Mark-Chaffin@ouhsc.edu]
Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2003 12:44 PM
To: Child Maltreatment Researchers
Subject: surveillance bias literature


Is anyone aware of studies that have examined or measured the extent of
surveillance bias in child maltreatment recurrence data.  In particular, I'm
interested in locating work related to surveillance bias for participants in
home-visiting or other intervention programs, or analyses of the extent to
which surveillance may impact intervention-control comparisons in outcome
studies using maltreatment reports as outcomes.  I am aware of the Olds, et
al. study related to this.  Any others?

Mark Chaffin, Ph.D.
Director of Research, Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
P.O. Box 26901
Oklahoma City, OK  73190
(405) 271-8858, fax (405) 271-2931
mark-chaffin@ouhsc.edu