Evaluation of child health booklet usage in primary healthcare centres in Duhok Province, Iraq

Abstract

ObjectivesA child health booklet (CHB) is a record of a child's health, growth and development that is kept by the child's parent or guardian, with contributions from various health professionals. Documentation of a child's growth and development started in the 20th century. This study was carried out to evaluate the usage of CHBs in primary healthcare centres (PHCCs) in Duhok Province, through studying the attitude and practices of parents and healthcare providers (HCPs). Study designA cross-sectional design was adopted to achieve the objectives of the study, using a stratified sampling procedure. MethodsAn interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 403 parents and 62 HCPs. Participants came from 20 PHCCs that were widely distributed within seven administrative districts of Duhok Province. Data collection started on 18th of April 2016 and ended on 25th of July 2016. ResultsThe study revealed that 362 (89.8%) parents received a copy of the CHB and 98.9% retained it. Most CHB retainers regularly brought it with them whenever they attend the PHCCs. For those who retained and brought the CHB, vaccination records were documented in 100% of booklets, followed by the documentation of anthropometric measurements (22.1%), child developmental checking (17.9%) and growth chart updates (10.6%). ConclusionMost parents received a copy of the CHB with high retention rate; however, booklet usage was often limited to documentation of vaccinations. The study findings clearly indicated the need for enhancing cooperation between all departments and staff in healthcare facilities through the distribution of CHBs to all parents of age-appropriate children, proper usage of the booklets by regular requesting of CHBs from parents when attending health facilities and proper documentation of all health services attended.