Poll Reports

1 in 10 parents follow the advice of their children’s healthcare provider only occasionally. Lower-income, black, and Hispanic parents are more likely to follow provider advice only occasionally. Following advice is associated with how parents rate the provider’s quality of care.

50% of parents say that word of mouth is very important when selecting a doctor for their children, compared with 25% of parents who say that doctor rating websites are very important. Mothers are more likely than fathers, and parents under 30 more likely than parents 30 and over, to say that online doctor ratings are very important.

About one-third of parents report they had received at least one pain medicine prescription for their children in the last five years. 35% of parents are very concerned about misuse of narcotic pain medicines by children and teens in their communities; only 19% are concerned about misuse in their families.

A majority of parents favor requiring regular hearing screenings for children from preschool through teenage years. For preschool-age children, two-thirds of parents prefer primary care offices for hearing screening. About half of parents prefer that hearing screening for older children take place in schools.

Two-thirds of adults think children should be at least 13 to use the Internet on their own. 29% of parents with children age 9-12 say their child has their own Wi-Fi enabled device; 21% of parents of children age 5-8 have such devices. Nearly two-thirds of adults strongly support proposed updates to COPPA legislation to protect children under age 13.

Nearly two-thirds of parents of young children in child care say their children could not attend because of illness in the past year. One-third of parents of young kids are concerned about losing jobs or pay when missing work to care for sick kids.

81% of adults say schools should take action if a student embarrasses or humiliates another student. 76% of adults believe schools should take action if a student spreads rumors about another student. 56% of adults believe schools should take action if a student isolates another student socially.

Adults rate ‘not enough exercise’ at the top of the list of big health problems for children in their communities. Other top health concerns include childhood obesity, smoking, drug abuse and bullying. Top child health concerns differ for black and Hispanic adults compared with white adults.

Most US adults support laws allowing teens to get medical care for sexually transmitted infections without parental consent. Less than half of US adults support laws allowing teens to receive HPV vaccine without their parents’ consent. For those opposing teen vaccination without parental consent, the parental decision-making role was most important.

The public rates childhood obesity as the top priority for presidential candidates to address. Other high-ranking child health priorities for candidates to address in the public’s view are bullying, drug abuse, and child abuse and neglect. There were no differences in child health priorities by adults’ political party affiliation or race/ethnicity.