Parenting interventions and the prevention of unintentional injuries in childhood: systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effectiveness of parenting interventions in preventing unintentional injury and increasing parental safety practices. DATA SOURCES: A range of medical and social science electronic databases were searched. Abstracts from the first to seventh World conferences on injury prevention and control and the journal Injury Prevention were hand searched. REVIEW METHODS: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs), non-randomized controlled trials (non-RCTs) and controlled before and after studies, providing parenting interventions to parents of children aged 0-18 years and reporting injuries, safety equipment or safety practices were included. Studies were selected, data extracted and quality appraised independently by two reviewers. Pooled relative risks were estimated using random effect models. RESULTS: Fifteen studies (11 RCTs) were included, 11 of which were home visiting programmes and two of which were paediatric practice-based interventions. Thirteen studies recruited families at risk of adverse child health outcomes. Intervention arm families had a significantly lower risk of injury (RR 0.82, 95% CI 0.71-0.95), as measured by self-report of medically or non-medically attended injury. Several studies found fewer home hazards, a home environment more conducive to child safety, or a greater number of safety practices in intervention arm families. CONCLUSIONS: Parenting interventions, most commonly provided within the home, using multi-faceted interventions appear to be effective in reducing unintentional child injury. Further research is required to explore the mechanisms by which parenting interventions reduce injury, the features of interventions that are necessary to reduce injury, and their generalizability to different population groups.

Parenting interventions for the prevention of unintentional injuries in childhood.

BACKGROUND: Parent education and training programmes can improve maternal psychosocial health, child behavioural problems and parenting practices. This review assesses the effects of parenting interventions for reducing child injury. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effects of parenting interventions for preventing unintentional injury as well as increasing possession and use of safety equipment and parental safety practices. SEARCH STRATEGY: We searched CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Biological Abstracts, Psych INFO, Sociofile, Social Science Citation Index, CINAHL, Dissertation Abstracts, ERIC, DARE, ASSIA, Web of Science, SIGLE and ZETOC. We also handsearched abstracts from the World Conferences on Injury Prevention & Control and the journal Injury Prevention. The searches were conducted in May 2005. SELECTION CRITERIA: We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs), non-randomised controlled trials (non-RCTs) and controlled before and after studies (CBAs), which evaluated parenting interventions administered to parents of children aged 18 years and under, and reported outcome data on injuries (unintentional or unspecified intent), and possession and use of safety equipment or safety practices. Parenting interventions were defined as those with a specified protocol, manual or curriculum aimed at changing knowledge, attitudes or skills covering a range of parenting topics. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Studies were selected, data were extracted and quality appraised independently by two authors. Pooled relative risks (RR) were estimated using random effect models. MAIN RESULTS: Fifteen studies were included in the review: 11 RCTs (one included a CBA within the same study), one non-RCT, one study contained both randomised and non-randomised arms and two CBAs. Two provided solely educational interventions. Thirteen provided interventions comprising parenting education and other support services; 11 of which were home visiting programmes and two of which were paediatric practice-based interventions. Thirteen studies recruited families at risk of adverse child health outcomes. Nine RCTs were included in the primary meta-analysis, which indicated that intervention families had a significantly lower risk of injury (RR 0.82, 95% CI 0.71 to 0.95). Several studies found fewer home hazards, a home environment more conducive to child safety, or a greater number of safety practices in intervention families. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Parenting interventions, most commonly provided within the home using multi-faceted interventions may be effective in reducing child injury. The evidence relates mainly to interventions provided to families at risk of adverse child health outcomes. Further research is required to explore mechanisms by which these interventions reduce injury, the features of parenting interventions that are necessary or sufficient to reduce injury and the generalisability to different population groups.

Individual and group-based parenting programmes for the treatment of physical child abuse and neglect.

BACKGROUND: Child physical abuse and neglect are important public health problems and recent estimates of their prevalence suggest that they are considerably more common than had hitherto been realised. Many of the risk factors for child abuse and neglect are not amenable to change in the short term. Intervening to change parenting practices may, however, be important in its treatment. Parenting programmes are focused, short-term interventions aimed at improving parenting practices in addition to other outcomes (many of which are risk factors for child abuse e.g. parental psychopathology, and parenting attitudes and practices), and may therefore be useful in the treatment of physically abusive or neglectful parents. OBJECTIVES: To assess the efficacy of group-based or one-to-one parenting programmes in addressing child physical abuse or neglect. SEARCH STRATEGY: A range of biomedical and social science databases were searched including MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsychINFO, Sociofile, Social Science Citation Index, ASSIA, the Cochrane Library, Campbell Library (including SPECTR and CENTRAL), National Research Register (NRR) and ERIC, from inception to May 2005. SELECTION CRITERIA: Only randomised controlled trials or randomised studies that compared two treatments were included. Studies had to include at least one standardised instrument measuring some aspect of abusive or neglectful parenting. In the absence of studies using objective assessments of child abuse, studies reporting proxy measures of abusive parenting were included. Only studies evaluating the effectiveness of standardised group-based or one-to-one parenting programmes aimed at the treatment of physical child abuse or neglect were included. Studies were also only eligible for inclusion if they had targeted parents of children aged 0-19 years who had been investigated for physical abuse or neglect. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: The treatment effect for each outcome in each study was standardised by dividing the mean difference in post-intervention scores for the intervention and treatment group by the pooled standard deviation, to obtain an effect size. The results for each outcome in each study have been presented, with 95% confidence intervals. It was not possible to combine any results in a meta-analysis. MAIN RESULTS: A total of seven studies of variable quality were included in this review. Only two studies assessed the effectiveness of parenting programmes on the incidence of child abuse or number of injuries. One study showed that there were no reports of abuse in the intervention group compared with one report of abuse in the control group. In the second study the small number of injuries sustained precluded the possibility of statistical analysis. Data were also extracted on over fifty outcomes that are used as proxy measures of abusive parenting. These were on the whole diverse and measured a range of aspects of parenting (e.g. parental child management, discipline practices, child abuse potential and mental health), child health (e.g. emotional and behavioural adjustment) and family functioning, thereby precluding the possibility of undertaking a meta-analysis for most outcomes for which data were extracted. While none of the programmes were effective across all of the outcomes measured, many appeared to have improved some outcomes for some of the participating parents, although many failed to achieve statistical significance. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: There is insufficient evidence to support the use of parenting programmes to treat physical abuse or neglect (i.e. such as the incidence of child abuse using reports of child abuse/linjuries or children on the children protection register). There is, however, limited evidence to show that some parenting programmes may be effective in improving some outcomes that are associated with physically abusive parenting. There is an urgent need for further rigorous evaluation of the effectiveness of parenting programmes that are specifically designed to treat physical abuse and neglect, either independently or as part of broader packages of care. Such evaluation should include the use of objective measures of outcome such as independent assessments of parenting and the number of instances of physical abuse. In order to do this, future studies need to include long-term follow-up.

Pioneers, paediatricians and public health: the evolution of community child health services, Clifton, Nottingham 1983-1999.

Since 1976 developments in the training and services provided by general practitioners and community paediatricians have led to a series of changes in clinical services provided for children in the community. A series of studies carried out in the Clifton area of Nottingham from 1983 to 1999 illustrate this. A changing pattern of service delivery is reported in which clinical medical officers provided a largely primary care service in 1983 developing into a paediatric secondary care service in the next decade with the primary health care team having taken over the role of child health surveillance. The community services in the 1990s were taking over the investigation and management of paediatric problems previously seen in the hospital outpatient clinic. The studies illustrate the advantages of locally based services in terms of ease of parental access and consultation between the primary health care team and specialist children's services.

School nursing: costs and potential benefits.

BACKGROUND: Previous reports that variations in school nursing resources across the UK had no relationship to deprivation; controversy about the changing role of the school nursing service. OBJECTIVES: To measure the resources allocated to school nursing, determine whether the variations can be explained by deprivation, and assess whether the allocation of school nursing time to a range of tasks is in line with current evidence and perceptions of changing needs. STUDY DESIGN: Quantitative economic analysis; qualitative descriptive study. SETTING: Detailed study of four English districts with diverse characteristics; staffing and service questionnaire and telephone survey of 62 districts. MAIN MEASURES: Staff resources and their salaries; measures of population and deprivation; activity statistics. RESULTS: There were wide variations in the cost of the school nursing service, but in contrast to previous reports 24% of the variance was explained by deprivation. There were no clear associations with any other social or educational variables. The greatest allocation of time was in routine screening and surveillance tasks. Relatively little time was allocated to other activities such as health promotion, support of special needs or unwell children, or teenage clinics. The expenditure on school nursing is only loosely related to deprivation and the results of this study offer guidance on what districts should spend to achieve equity of provision. CONCLUSIONS: The current allocation of resources to school nursing in between districts comparisons is not equitable and the use of school nursing time is out of step with current evidence of need and effectiveness.

Field trial of graded care profile (GCP) scale: a new measure of care.

AIM: The graded care profile (GCP) scale was developed as a practical tool in response to the Children Act 1989 to provide a measure of care in four areas: physical, safety, love, and esteem, on a bipolar continuum. This field trial was to assess its user friendliness and inter-rater agreement. METHODS: 43 nursery children and 11 registered for neglect were each scored on this scale independently by two different raters (health visitor and nursery teacher or social worker). Their inter-rater agreement was assessed by weighted kappa and user friendliness by time taken for and completeness of scoring. RESULTS: An almost perfect level of agreement was achieved in physical care (kappa = 0.899; confidence interval (CI) = 0.850 to 0.948), safety (kappa = 0.894; CI = 0.854 to 0.933), esteem (kappa = 0.877; CI = 0.808 to 0.946), and a substantial level in love (kappa = 0.785; CI = 0.720 to 0.849). Mean time taken for scoring was 20 minutes (range 10 to 30); of 54 paired scales, area of safety was not scored only in three by one of the raters. CONCLUSIONS: This scale appeared user friendly and provided grading of care with high inter-rater agreement. Its use in practice could provide an opportunity for useful comparison with other means of assessment of care, studying outcomes of different care profiles, targeting intervention, and monitoring change.

General practitioners use of hospital and community based paediatric out-patient services in Nottingham.

The paper compares and contrasts the referral patterns of general practitioners in Nottingham for paediatric specialist opinion in a hospital and community setting. Data were collected from case notes review and medical activity data returns on 100 consecutive referrals made by GPs to a hospital paediatric consultant out-patient clinical and 100 consecutive referrals to a community based consultant clinic. Multiple diagnoses are more commonly made and recorded by community based paediatricians with a bias towards behavioural, nutrition, growth and neurodevelopmental problems. Hospital clinic staff made more system and disease based diagnoses with more investigations arranged than the community staff [53 cf. 15 (OR 6.39, 95% CI; 3.25-12.55, P = < 0.0001)]. More children under five were seen in the community clinic sample compared to the hospital sample [75 cf. 57 under fives (OR 2.26, 95% CI; 1.24-4.13, P = 0.01)]. Patients are more likely to be discharged from the hospital clinic than the community clinic after the initial visit. [59 cf. 33 (OR 2.92, 95% CI; 1.64-5.20, P = 0.0004)]. Costs per new case consultation were substantially less in the community clinic than the hospital setting. A broadly similar range of clinic problems are referred to both hospital and community based paediatricians in Nottingham. The educational and liaison value of local community paediatric clinics together with relatively easier access by parents and lower per case costs is an advantage. Commissioners of paediatric and child health services need to take into consideration these factors when purchasing out-patient specialist paediatric opinion. Further research is required into the quality and desirability of these developments.

Facilities for the school health team.

Results of a questionnaire returned by 20 doctors giving information of 249 schools showed that many of the rooms made available to school health services are inadequate in terms of physical resources and privacy. A higher set of standards is recommended to enable schools and pupils to derive maximum benefit from community paediatric services.

Discovering anaemia at child health clinics.

Children at three inner city child health clinics were offered haemoglobin estimation by fingerprick blood test when attending for immunisation against measles. Of the 98 immunised, 92 (94%) participated in the study, together with 58 other children. Anaemia (haemoglobin concentration less than 110 g/l) was found in 33 of 130 overall (25%), and in 17 of 44 Asian children (39%). The method of testing was acceptable to parents and staff.

General practitioner training in paediatrics in the Trent region.

A total of 259 postal questionnaires were sent to all final year vocational trainees and new principals in general practice in the Trent region to find out how much training in paediatrics they had had. Questionnaires were returned by 105 trainees and 139 principals (244; 94%). Overall 72% (175) had taken up a hospital post in paediatrics during training, but among the 138 doctors who were on or had completed a three year vocational training scheme the proportion was slightly higher (82%; 115) (p = 0.01). Among the 175 who had had a post in paediatrics 108 (62%) had been given teaching sessions every week, and for half of these doctors the sessions lasted over one hour a week. Seventy five (54%) of the 139 principals reported that in their training in a general practice they had received no teaching about child health and a fifth said that they had not attended a clinic for children; 47 (34%) had received no training on procedures for dealing with cases of child abuse. The doctors who had held posts as senior house officers in paediatrics were more likely to report that they had adequate skills in paediatrics than those who had not, but overall only 62 (44%) reported that they could run a preschool child health surveillance programme. Extra paediatric posts in hospital are needed, but in the mean time improvements can be made to the teaching content in hospital and in the general practice attachment and postgraduate training in paediatrics provided for all general practitioners.

Immunisation practice in an inner city clinic.

The immunisation process in one inner city child health clinic was examined. Only 5% of the children had completed their immunisation courses within the recommended time span. However, by the age of three years 78% of children had received three injections with either triple vaccines or Dip/Tet vaccine and 63% of children had been immunisated against measles. Many children are immunised at ages which differ markedly from those recommended. The implications of this are discussed.