A family perspective on population health: the case of child health and the family.

CONTEXT

This paper makes the case for a family perspective on population health and specifically focuses on how children's health can impact family health and well-being.

OBJECTIVE

To review and synthesize the diverse set of papers that has examined the associations and linkages between children's health and family health.

RESULTS

Based on the synthesis of the existing literature, additional research is needed that focuses on (1) the longitudinal impact of childhood chronic illness on the family using national samples, (2) the application of interdisciplinary methodologies to studying childhood chronic illness in the family, and (3) understanding the psychobiology of caring for a child with a chronic illness and the concordance of such measures with self-reported stress and burden.

CONCLUSIONS

We propose a new integrated conceptual framework for better understanding the mechanisms that influence children's health and health care.