Trial collaborators' perceptions of the process of delivering Healthy Beginnings advice via telephone calls or text messages

Promoting social, emotional, and cognitive development in early childhood: A protocol for early valuation of a culturally adapted digital tool for supporting optimal childrearing practices

Objective

The Thrive by Five app promotes positive interactions between children and parents, extended family, and trusted community members that support optimal socio-emotional and cognitive development in the early years. This article aims to describe the protocol for a prospective mixed-methods multi-site study evaluating Thrive by Five using surveys, interviews, workshops, audio diaries from citizen ethnographers and app usage data.

Methods

The study activities and timelines differ by site, with an extensive longitudinal evaluation being conducted at two sites and a basic evaluation being conducted at five sites. The learnings from the more comprehensive evaluations inform the iterative research and development processes while also ensuring ongoing evaluation of usability, acceptability and effectiveness of the app and its content across varying contexts. The study evaluates: (1) the impact of the Thrive by Five content on caregiver knowledge, behaviours, attitudes and confidence; (2) how the content changes relationships at the familial, community and system level; (3) how cultural and contextual factors influence content engagement and effectiveness and (4) the processes that facilitate or disrupt the success of the implementation and dissemination.

Results

All in-country partners have been identified and data collection has been completed in Indonesia, Malaysia, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Namibia and Cameroon.

Conclusions

Very few digital health solutions have been trialled for usability and effectiveness in diverse cultural contexts. By combining quantitative, qualitative, process and ethnographic methodologies, this innovative study informs the iterative and ongoing optimisation of the cultural and contextual sensitivity of the Thrive by Five content and the processes supporting implementation and dissemination.

Participants' Engagement With Telephone Support Interventions to Promote Healthy Feeding Practices and Obesity-Protective Behaviours for Infant Obesity Prevention

BACKGROUND

Participant engagement with program interventions is vital to support intended behaviour changes and outcomes. The aim of this research was to investigate participant engagement with the Communicating Healthy Beginnings Advice by Telephone (CHAT) program, an early childhood obesity prevention program that included interventions for promoting healthy infant feeding practices and obesity-protective behaviours via telephone, and whether engagement with the telephone support program varied by participants' sociodemographic characteristics.

METHODS

This study used de-identified CHAT program data of participants who received the interventions via telephone. Data analysed included 1) participant engagement in telephone support from late pregnancy to 12 months of child's age, 2) demographic characteristics collected at late pregnancy and 3) intervention providers' observations and notes (qualitative data) for 10 participants from each engagement group (low, medium, high) to explore issues discussed during telephone support.

RESULTS

Call completion rate by participants was above sixty percent for all six stages of the telephone support program with more than half of the participants (57%) demonstrating high level of engagement. We found that participants' country of birth, employment status and annual household income were predictors of engagement with the telephone support provided in the CHAT program. The odds of participants' engagement with the telephone support program were 1.68 times higher for Australian born (95% CI 1.07 - 2.62), 1.63 times higher for participants who were employed (95% CI 1.01 - 2.66) and 1.63 times higher for participants with annual household income ≥AUD$80,000 (95% CI 1.02 - 2.60).

CONCLUSIONS

Participant engagement with the program interventions was good. Participants' engagement with the telephone support program was significantly associated with certain socio-demographic characteristics. Australian born participants, and participants associated with higher household income and employment engaged significantly more with the telephone support provided in the CHAT program. Additionally, the program engaged more participants older than 30 years of age and those who spoke English at home. The program provided unintended personal benefits to some participants with high engagement level due to their various psychosocial needs such as domestic violence, mental health and sleep related issues. Although not an intended benefit of the intervention, psychosocial needs of participants were met which was a likely factor for mothers' engagement with the program. This is an important factor that needs to be considered while implementing future programs or scale up of this program.