Is parent engagement with a child health home-based record influenced by early child development and first-born status? hypotheses from a high-income countries’ perspective

Abstract

Home-based records for child health are widely used for documenting primary healthcare services including vaccinations and health screening. It serves as an educational tool for parents and promote continuity of care as well as communication between health professionals and parents. In our previous systematic review, we identified that parents in low- and middle-income countries and high-income countries value such a record and consider it important for childcare, yet questions were raised about its wide distribution and utilisation in high-income countries. We therefore aim to examine predictors that could be related to the use/usefulness of the record book in a high-income country, Australia. We hypothesize that parent engagement with the child health home-based record may be influenced by early child development (in-terms of age and hitting milestones) as measured by parent evaluation of developmental status (PEDS) tool and first-born status of the child (as compared to later-born). To test these hypotheses, we will be conducting a community-based survey and review of the record books across New South Wales state of Australia. This paper includes a summary of the findings of our previous review study that prompted the development of these hypotheses and the study protocol we will follow to test these hypotheses.