Evaluation of Health Visiting Services for First Time Parents
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An evaluation of Health Visiting Services for First Time Parents within the Northern Health and Social Care Trust
IRAS ID
247097
Contact name
Bernie Reid
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Ulster University
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, 28 days
Research summary
The purpose of this evaluation is to compare the outcomes for first time parents who received Star Babies as compared to those who received core Child Health Promotion Programme within the Northern Health and Social Care Trust. Both programmes are health visitor-led. The core Child Health Promotion Programme is provided for all parents/families with pre-school children whilst Star Babies is an additional enhanced universal home visiting service for first time parents that offers regular support from the antenatal period until baby is twelve months of age. For the purposes of this evaluation, parent refers to single or both parents, legal guardians and kinship carers. Outcomes to be compared in this evaluation are parenting confidence, knowledge of child accident prevention, use of health services, community engagement, and relationship with health visiting team. Parenting confidence is considered to entail infant-parent relationship, setting boundaries, infant feeding practices, and oral healthcare.
Approximately 500 first time parents who have availed of Star Babies and a further 500 parents who have availed of the Child Health Health Promotion Programme from comparable health visitor team localities, and whose baby has reached twelve months of age between 1st September 2018 and 28th February 2019 will be invited to participate in the evaluation. Family health visitors will inform parents of the study and provide a Participant Information Sheet (Appendix 1) and Study Questionnaire (Appendix 2). Participants may complete a paper or online questionnaire. Each health visitor team locality will collate a monthly list of the mobile telephone numbers of potential participants which will be provided to the researcher (Elizabeth Gallagher). To encourage participation, a reminder SMS text will be sent by the researcher to all potential participants two weeks after initial recruitment.
REC name
North East - Tyne & Wear South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/NE/0280
Date of REC Opinion
31 Aug 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion