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Children in Wales Annual Conference 2018.

The Whole Child: The importance of getting it right

Interventions that enhance health services for parents and infants

to improve child development and social and emotional wellbeing in

high-income countries: A systematic review

Background

Experiences in the first 1000 days of life have a critical

influence on child development. Appropriate early child

development (including physical, social and emotional,
language and cognitive development) has consistently

been shown to be associated with good health and

educational outcomes in childhood, and better health
and employment outcomes in adulthood. Universal

health services that support families need evidence to

improve their provision.

What we did

We reviewed studies that tested interventions aiming
to improve child development including social and

emotional wellbeing outcomes, by enhancing health

service contact with parents up to 24 months
postpartum. We used a broad systematic search of the

extensive literature in this field, and searched many

sources in addition to database searches (such as 58
programme or organisation websites).

What we found

We found 22 studies in high-income settings. The

quality of the studies was moderate to low, and there

was only limited evidence that the interventions had
any positive effects. Programmes of greater intensity (in

terms of length, number or type of components) did not

show more positive effects than programmes of lower
intensity.

How can our research help you

Understanding how health service contacts can be enhanced to provide support for parents -to achieve the

best outcomes for their children - is necessary but challenging. Maternal and child health services consist

of many components, many of these untested. Funding is also scarce. We found insufficient evidence that

universal interventions currently available improve child development outcomes, especially when compared

to usual care. There is an urgent need for robust evaluation of existing and novel interventions, to enhance

services for all families. If you’d like to know more, or if you’re interested in doing your own research in this

area and think we can help, please contact Lisa Hurt at Cardiff University (hurtl@cardiff.ac.uk).

NCPHWR is funded by

The National Centre for Population Health & Wellbeing Research

www.ncphwr.org.uk