The Child and Adolescent Health Research Design and Support (CAHRDS) Unit exists within the Department of Pediatrics of the University of Louisville School of Medicine.
Its mission is to improve effectiveness, quality, safety, and delivery of health care and promote optimal health for all children in Kentucky through the application of Pediatric Health Services Research
Dr. Davis is the Director of the CAHRDS’ Unit and Professor of Pediatrics.
For our purposes, we define health services research as a multidisciplinary field of study that aims to understand factors that influence child and adolescent health, which include individuals, families, communities, and organizations.
The CAHRDS’ Unit and its areas of study
Areas of study may include health behaviours, social determinants of health, access to care, care quality, health care costs, resource utilization, and system structures, processes, and policies. Within this mission, our multidisciplinary team conduct our own research using a team-science approach. In addition, we provide guidance to clinician-scientists and trainees to strengthen their research and other scholarly works by providing consultation on best-practices for areas such as research design, data collection, and dissemination of findings.
Members of our team-science working group vary from project to project to be inclusive of those with the relevant expertise for each project. A core group of frequent participants include physicians in general pediatrics, child psychiatry, and emergency medicine; two biostatisticians, and a researcher trained in nursing and developmental psychology who all work in the School of Medicine. Project teams also frequently include medical students and pediatric residents and fellows.
The most frequent areas of focus include child health equity and child behavioral and mental health. One particular area of interest related to behavioral and mental health is the judicious use of psychotropic medications, especially anti-psychotics and medication use in very young children. An individualized approach is needed to ensure that children are appropriately prescribed these medications and that the children are carefully monitored. Age-appropriate behavioral health treatment with or without concurrent medication should be considered. Examples of these works are listed below.
Selected References
- *Jawad, K., Feygin, Y., Stevenson, M., Wattles, B., Porter, J., Jones, V.F., and *Davis, D.W. (Accepted). The association between four neighborhood disadvantage indices and child chronic health classifications. (Accepted to Pediatric Research, 5/7/25).
- Kerns, K., Jawad, K., Feygin, Y., Jones, V.F., Lohr, W.D., Le, J., Fields, K., Porter, J., Ouellette, S., *Davis, D.W. (2025). The positive association of physical activity on sadness and suicide behaviors for youth who have been bullied. Journal of Affective Disorders, 378, 248–253. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2025.02.107. Published ahead of print March 6, 2025.
- Davis, D.W., Jawad, K., Feygin, Y., Stevenson, M., Wattles, B., Jones, V.F., Porter, J., Lohr, W.D., and Le, J. (2024). The relationships among neighborhood disadvantage, mental health and developmental disabilities diagnoses, and race/ethnicity in a U.S. urban location. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, published online ahead of print 8/28/24, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-024-01751-w
- Lohr, W.D., Jawad, K., Wood, N., Le, J., Stevenson, M., and Davis, D.W. (2023). Factors Associated with Child and Youth Mental Health Readmissions from a U.S. National Database, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Open, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaacop.2023.12.001.
- Davis, D.W., Jawad, K., Lohr, W.D., Trace, M., Le, J., Feygin, Y., and Jones, V.F. (2023). First-line Behavioral Health Treatment Prior to Stimulant or Alpha-2 Agonist Use for Preschoolers on Kentucky Medicaid in 2017, Journal of Attention Disorders, 27(4), 437-446. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/10870547221147543
- Le, J., Jawad, K., Feygin, Y., Lohr, W.D., Creel, L., Jones, V.F., Schultz, K.V., Stevenson, M.D., Kong, M., *Davis, D.W. (2022). Examination of U.S. national rates of emergency department visits and hospitalizations for depression and suicidal behaviors after the release of the 13 Reasons Why Netflix series by demographic characteristics, Journal of Affective Disorders, 311, 508–514. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2022.05.116.
- Le, J., Feygin, Y., Creel, L., Lohr, W.D., Jones, V.F., Williams, P.G., Myers, J., Pasquenza, N., *Davis, D.W. (2020). Trends in diagnosis of bipolar and disruptive mood dysregulation disorders in children and youth. Journal of Affective Disorders, 264, 242-248; doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2019.12.018.
- Davis, D.W., Feygin, Y., Creel, L., Kong, M., Jawad, K., Sun, J., Blum, N.J., Lohr, W.D., Williams, P.G., Le, J., Jones, V.F., Pasquenza, N. (2020). Treating ADHD in Preschoolers: Retrospective cohort study from 2012-2017 Kentucky Medicaid. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, 30, 448-455; doi: https://doi.org/10.1089/cap.2020.0015
- Davis, D.W., Jawad, K., Feygin, Y., Creel, L., Kong, M., Sun, J., Lohr, W.D., Williams, P.G., Le, J., Jones, V.F., Trace, M., & Pasquenza, N. (2021). Disparities in ADHD Diagnosis and Treatment by Race/Ethnicity in Youth receiving Kentucky Medicaid in 2017. Ethnicity & Disease, 31, 67-76; doi:https://doi.org/10.18865/ed.31.1.67
- *Davis, D.W., *Lohr, W.D., Feygin, Y., Creel, L., Jawad, K., Jones, V.F., Williams, P.G., Le, J., Trace, M., Pasquenza, N., (2021). High-level Psychotropic Polypharmacy for Children in Foster Care Compared to their Peers on Medicaid. BMC Psychiatry, 21(1), 303; doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-021-03309-9
- Lohr, W.D., Jawad, K., Feygin, Y., Creel, L., Pasquenza, N., Jones, V.F., Williams, P.G., Le, J., Meyers, J., & Davis, D.W. (2021). Antipsychotic Medications for Low-Income Preschoolers: Long Duration and Psychotropic Medication Polypharmacy. Psychiatric Services, 73(5), 510–517. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.202000673
