Page 48 - Demo

Integrating a parenting intervention with routine primary health care: A cluster randomised trial
Many agencies, including the World Bank, IADB, UNICEF and WHO, have recognised the importance of child development, and have called for integrating early child development (ECD) interventions with health and nutrition programmes. This approach would be cost effective, and small scale trials have shown that integration with nutrition interventions can work. However, there have been few larger evaluations. The challenge is to develop innovative low- cost ECD programmes that are both feasible and effective at scale.
The researchers hypothesised that an ECD programme could be integrated into routine primary health care visits at Government Health Centres, and would improve parents’ knowledge, the amount of stimulation they provide for their children, and their children’s developmental levels. They developed a parent training package that could be delivered without additional staff, using the time mothers spent waiting to see the nurse.
The study was a cluster randomised trial conducted in Jamaica, Antigua and St. Lucia, and implemented in primary care health centres. The structure of the primary care health system is similar across the three countries, with free maternal and child
Despite low intensity
and challenging clinic
conditions, the intervention
benefitted child cognitive
development and parent
knowledge. This innovative
approach is suitable
for implementation in
primary care centres in the
Caribbean.
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Recognising Outstanding Researchers 2016