About

Chen C. Kenyon is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics (General Pediatrics) at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He holds a BA in Mathematics from the University of Rochester, an MD from Boston University School of Medicine, and an MSHP in Health Policy Research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. His professional roles include Pediatric Hospitalist at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, Investigator at Clinical Futures and PolicyLab at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Faculty Lead of the Population Health Science Research Portfolio at PolicyLab, and Co-Director of the Research and Education Core at the Center for Health Equity. His research focuses on pediatric health, with particular emphasis on asthma, health disparities, social determinants of health, and population health science. He has contributed to understanding asthma exacerbation risks, the impact of environmental factors on pediatric respiratory health, and social needs among hospitalized children, among other topics.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Pediatrics
• Family medicine
• Emergency medicine
• Intensive care medicine

Selected publications

• Improving Single Maintenance and Reliever Therapy for Patients Admitted for Asthma Exacerbation

  Pediatric Quality and Safety · 2026-01-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Introduction: In 2020, single maintenance and reliever therapy (SMART) became guideline-recommended care for school-age children in the United States with poorly controlled, persistent asthma. Pediatric inpatient providers are well positioned to prescribe SMART, as they often care for patients with poorly controlled asthma. Our interdisciplinary team aimed to increase the proportion of SMART prescriptions at discharge for eligible pediatric patients admitted for asthma exacerbation from 17% to 40% by September 2023, consistent across strata of payor type, race, and Child Opportunity Index (COI). Methods: Four primary drivers of SMART prescription at discharge were identified: familiarity, prescriber culture, decision support, and logistics. Interventions targeting these drivers, including education and clinical decision support, were implemented during 10 Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles. This quality improvement project included patients who were prescribed an inhaled controller medication on admission and had 2 or more hospitalizations and/or emergency room visits for asthma exacerbation requiring systemic corticosteroids within 12 months. The outcome measure was SMART prescription at discharge, stratified by payor type, race, and COI. Results: Between January 2021 and December 2023, 312 hospital encounters involving 215 unique patients occurred. SMART prescription at discharge increased from 17% at baseline to 38% and was sustained for 19 months. Similar increases in SMART prescriptions at discharge were observed among Black patients, those with government-sponsored health insurance, and those with very low COI. Conclusions: Using quality improvement methodology, SMART prescriptions increased at discharge for pediatric patients admitted for asthma exacerbation, including in demographic strata where disparities are often observed.

  PublisherDOI

• Associations of Community Material Neighborhood Deprivation With the Diagnosis of Asthma Among Infants With Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (BPD)

  Pediatric Pulmonology · 2026-01-01

  articleOpen access

  OBJECTIVE: To quantify associations of the community-level material deprivation index (CMDI) with asthma diagnosis by age 5 years among preterm infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of preterm infants with BPD, born between 2010 and 2019, discharged from a single hospital system to a home address in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, with documented follow-up in the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Care Network through 5 years of age. Patient charts were reviewed for asthma diagnoses, identified by ICD-10 codes. We geocoded each patient's address at time of neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) discharge to assign census tract CMDI values (range 0 to 1). Multivariable logistic regression models quantified associations of CMDI with asthma diagnosis by age 5 adjusting for patient-level factors. RESULTS: Of the 337 preterm infants with BPD and 5-year follow-up within the CHOP Care Network, 169 (50%) were diagnosed with asthma by age 5. CMDI was higher among infants diagnosed with asthma compared to those without asthma (0.43 vs 0.38, p = 0.002). Per standard deviation increment of CMDI, infants had 34% and 32% higher odds of asthma diagnosis in unadjusted (OR 1.34, 95% CI: 1.11, 1.62) and adjusted (aOR 1.32, 95%CI: 1.05-1.65) models, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Among an urban population of former preterm infants with BPD, high rates of asthma by school age were noted and higher neighborhood deprivation was associated with asthma diagnosis by age 5 years.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Prevalence of Social Needs Among Hospitalized Children With Complex Chronic Conditions

  Hospital Pediatrics · 2025-06-05 · 2 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Indoor Air Quality Changes From a Health-System Initiated Intervention to Remediate Homes of Children With Asthma

  American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine · 2025-05-01

  article

  Abstract RATIONALE: Asthma disproportionately affects urban low-income and racial/ethnic minoritized children. Old housing stock and high poverty rates make it difficult to maintain homes in urban neighborhoods. CAPP+ is a partnership between a large pediatric health system and community-based home repair agencies to conduct targeted remediation of homes of children with asthma to reduce in-home asthma allergens. CAPP+ repairs focused on improved ventilation, pest exclusion, carpet removal, and reducing water intrusion and moisture. This evaluation used air quality measurements and dust sample analysis to examine changes in levels of asthma allergens (or mediators of allergen growth) following home remediation.METHODS: Air quality monitors in 38 homes collected relative humidity (RH; a mediator of mold growth), PM2.5 and PM10 measurements every minute prior to and following completion of home remediation activities. We calculated 24-hour averages of each measure from the most proximal weekday prior to or following the beginning and end of home remediation, respectively. We calculated changes in air quality using paired t-tests.Dust samples were collected from the kitchen, child's bedroom, and living room of 23 homes prior to and following home remediation activities. Dust samples were analyzed for der-f-1 (dust mite), bla-g-1 (cockroach), bla-g-2 (cockroach), and mus-m-1 (mouse). We calculated the amount of each allergen per in2 of floor sampled. We calculated changes in allergens using McNemar's test and Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test.RESULTS: Average 24-hour RH decreased by 5.8% (p = 0.05) following home remediation. Observed decreases in median 24-hour PM2.5 or PM10 were not statistically significant. Mus-m-1 was detected in 95% of kitchens prior to and 77% of kitchens following remediation (p=0.05). We observed no change in the number of kitchens in which bla-g-2 was detected, but we observed an average reduction of 0.03 ng/in2(p=0.03) in these kitchens. Total amount of dust collected from children's bedrooms reduced by an average of 0.21 mg/in2(p=0.06).CONCLUSIONS: We observed promising improvements in several measures of indoor air quality (IAQ) following completion of home remediation targeted at underlying sources of environmental allergens in the homes of children with asthma from low-income neighborhoods. Though small sample size limited our ability to detect changes, the observed changes support the intervention's hypothesized mechanism of change. Future studies should examine the effect of seasonality and whether particular repairs were associated with IAQ improvements.

  PublisherDOI

• Expanded Child Tax Credit Payments During Pregnancy Were Associated With Decreased Odds Of Adverse Birth Outcomes

  Health Affairs · 2025-10-01 · 2 citations

  article

  The 2021 expanded Child Tax Credit (ECTC) provided families with six monthly cash transfer payments disbursed between July and December 2021, with the goal of alleviating financial strain during the COVID-19 pandemic. These payments reduced child poverty and food insufficiency and may have had beneficial effects on child health. Using 2019-22 Pennsylvania birth certificate data, we examined the association between parental receipt of monthly ECTC payments during pregnancy and infant birth outcomes, exploiting quasi-random variation in ECTC payment amounts based on date of birth and number of siblings. For every $1,000 in ECTC payments received during pregnancy, we observed decreased odds of preterm birth, low birthweight, and very low birthweight among infants of Medicaid-insured pregnant people. Nondirected cash transfer programs such as the ECTC and other income support programs and policies targeting pregnancy may lead to improved birth outcomes.

  PublisherDOI

• Site-Specific Adaptation of an Inpatient Patient Navigator Program at 2 Children’s Hospitals

  Hospital Pediatrics · 2025-09-03

  articleOpen access

  OBJECTIVE: The Family Bridge Program was developed at a single pediatric hospital to improve outcomes for hospitalized children from families of color, who are low income, or who speak a language other than English. The program uses a family navigator ("Guide") that supports families via 6 service domains: Language Access, Orientation to the Hospital, Communication Preferences and Coaching, Addressing Unmet Social Needs, Supportive Check-Ins, and Discharge Follow-Up. This study describes an analysis to translate the program to a second pediatric hospital. METHODS: We interviewed clinical and hospital staff with experience matching the program domains to identify Guide tasks and factors that could influence task performance between the 2 hospitals. The interview format and analysis were framed by a sociotechnical model to identify task-related factors (persons and roles, resources and tools, community and organizational characteristics…) and to develop adaptation and communication strategies for the Guide. RESULTS: We interviewed 45 participants (22 at Hospital 1, 23 at Hospital 2), representing 14 clinical and staff roles. Analysis identified 57 tasks for the Guide across the 6 program domains. Multiple sociotechnical factors were identified that could impact task performance between and within both hospitals. Additional analysis identified sociotechnical factors and adaptation strategies for integrating the Guide with the clinical team. CONCLUSIONS: The analysis facilitated a task-based adaptation of the Family Bridge Program to a second hospital by identifying and addressing sociotechnical differences between sites. This approach provides a framework for replicating the program at other hospitals.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Associations of Early Life Ambient PM _2.5 Exposure With Asthma Risk in a Cohort of Preterm Infants With Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia

  Pediatric Pulmonology · 2025-12-01

  articleOpen access

  ABSTRACT Objective To examine whether exposure to fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) during the first year after neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) discharge is associated with asthma by age 5 among infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 337 infants with BPD, born between 2010 and 2019, who survived to discharge with clinical follow‐up in the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Care Network through age 5. Daily residential census block group PM 2.5 exposures were estimated using a spatiotemporal machine‐learning model and averaged over the first year after NICU discharge. Modified Poisson regression models with robust standard errors quantified associations of PM2.5 with asthma by age 5, adjusting for neonatal clinical factors, insurance, neighborhood deprivation, and race/ethnicity. Results By age 5 years, 169 (50.1%) infants had an asthma diagnosis. Mean annual PM 2.5 exposure was 8.8 µg/m 3 (SD 1.1). Each 1 µg/m 3 increment of PM 2.5 was associated with higher asthma risk (unadjusted RR 1.14, 95% CI: 1.03–1.25; fully adjusted aRR 1.19, 95% CI: 1.03–1.37). Compared to the lowest exposure tertile (mean 7.6 µg/m 3 ), adjusted rates of asthma tended to be higher as exposure increased: Tertile 2 (mean 8.7 µg/m 3 , aRR 1.31; 95% CI: 0.98–1.74), Tertile 3 (mean 10.0 µg/m 3 , aRR 1.68, 95% CI: 1.17–2.4). Conclusions Exposure to higher ambient PM 2.5 in the year after NICU discharge was associated with asthma by age 5 among children with BPD. These findings highlight early‐life air quality as a modifiable determinant of long‐term respiratory outcomes in infants with BPD.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Is local air pollution concentration a moderator or mediator of the association between residential greenspace and pediatric asthma exacerbations? A longitudinal study of pediatric patients in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

  International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health · 2025-03-06 · 2 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Social Worker and Community Health Worker Collaboration in Addressing Social Needs

  PEDIATRICS · 2025-08-04 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Recent regulations require that hospitals screen families for health-related social needs (HRSNs), but many hospitals lack the resources and infrastructure to address these needs. Social workers (SWs) and community health workers (CHWs) play a critical role in filling this gap. We aimed to understand SW and CHW perspectives regarding effective strategies for addressing HRSNs during and after inpatient pediatric hospitalizations. METHODS: We conducted semi-structured interviews with inpatient SWs and CHWs at 3 academic children's hospitals exploring participants' experiences connecting families with resources, communicating with medical teams, and facilitating continued support for families after hospital discharge. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded; themes were derived using thematic analysis. RESULTS: We interviewed 28 participants (19 SWs, 9 CHWs). We then identified 4 themes (and 5 subthemes): (1) engagement with caregivers (SWs and CHWs aim to balance providing resources and promoting families' self-sufficiency), (2) approach to addressing needs (SWs and CHWs have complementary skillsets, and they find maintaining updated resource repositories a significant challenge), (3) engagement with medical teams (communication with providers focuses on needs impacting medical care or discharge planning), and (4) approach to follow-up (ensuring families have continued support following hospital discharge is a challenge, particularly for select populations). CONCLUSIONS: SWs and CHWs offer synergistic and complementary expertise to support families experiencing HRSNs. Participants highlighted opportunities to optimize processes for updating resource repositories and improve longitudinal support for families following hospital discharge.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Prediction of daily childhood asthma exacerbation from ambient meteorological, environmental risk factors and respiratory viruses, Philadelphia, PA, 2011 to 2016

  Environmental Science and Pollution Research · 2025-02-19 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Childhood asthma exacerbation has multiple risk factors that occur concurrently in the environment — including extreme meteorological conditions, air pollution, aeroallergens, and respiratory virus infections. Few studies have predicted asthma exacerbation based on multiple time-varying environmental risk factors, together. In this study, we constructed an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model to predict “high-risk” days for childhood asthma exacerbation in Philadelphia, PA from 2011 to 2016, during the aeroallergen season of each year, using a total of 28,540 asthma exacerbation case events identified from electronic health record (EHR) data. We selected predictors from quantile weighted sum regression (gQWS), incorporating temporal lags and season-stratification (early- vs. late-season), which were entered subsequently into multivariable ARIMA models. We found that daily nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), as well as monthly rhinovirus and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection levels, were higher on the predicted “high-risk” days, as compared to days with lower childhood asthma exacerbation risk. The model performed better for late-season asthma exacerbation (July to October) than for early season (March to June). Future work and continued research is needed to facilitate local health guidelines pertaining to childhood asthma exacerbation.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Incentive-based Mobile Health Adherence Intervention for High Risk Children with Asthma

  NIH · $908k · 2019–2024

Frequent coauthors

• Aditi Vasan

  Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

  57 shared

• Chris Feudtner

  Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

  36 shared

• Derek J. Williams

  Vanderbilt University Medical Center

  36 shared

• Tyra Bryant-Stephens

  University of Pennsylvania

  34 shared

• David Johnson

  Vanderbilt University

  27 shared

• Samir S. Shah

  Community Eye Care Foundation

  22 shared

• Rita Mangione‐Smith

  Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute

  22 shared

• Zoe Bouchelle

  Denver Health Medical Center

  22 shared

Education

• MSHP

  University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine

  2013

• MD

  Boston University School of Medicine

  2006

• BA, Mathematics

  University of Rochester

  2001