Child: care, health and development
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Child Care Health Dev · Jan 2015
From parent to 'peer facilitator': a qualitative study of a peer-led parenting programme.
Peer-led interventions are increasingly common in community health settings. Although peer-led approaches have proven benefits for service users, relatively little is known about the process and outcomes of participation for peer leaders. This study investigated experiences of parents who had participated as 'peer facilitators' in Empowering Parents, Empowering Communities (EPEC), a peer-led programme designed to improve access to evidence-based parenting support in socially disadvantaged communities. ⋯ The successful delivery and sustained implementation of peer-led interventions requires careful attention to the personal qualities and support of peer leaders. Based on the findings of this study, support should include training, access to intervention manuals, regular and responsive supervision, and logistical/administrative assistance. Further research is required to elaborate and extend these findings to other peer-led programmes.
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Child Care Health Dev · Jan 2015
Why the (dis)agreement? Family context and child-parent perspectives on health-related quality of life and psychological problems in paediatric asthma.
Children's health-related quality of life (HrQoL) and psychological problems are important outcomes to consider in clinical decision making in paediatric asthma. However, children's and parents' reports often differ. The present study aimed to examine the levels of agreement/disagreement between children's and parents' reports of HrQoL and psychological problems and to identify socio-demographic, clinical and family variables associated with the extent and direction of (dis)agreement. ⋯ Routine assessment of paediatric HrQoL and psychological problems in healthcare and research contexts should include self- and parent-reported data as complementary sources of information, and also consider the family context. The additional cost of conducting a more in-depth assessment of paediatric adaptation outcomes can be offset through more efficient allocation of health resources.
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Child Care Health Dev · Jan 2015
Childhood psychosocial development and fatal injuries in Gauteng, South Africa.
In South Africa, injuries are the third leading cause of death and disability. Children are especially susceptible to unintentional injuries, especially pedestrian injuries, burns and drowning. Injury risk is informed by children's exposure to adverse environmental circumstances, and individual capacities dependent on developmental maturity. Boys are at greater risk than girls. This study investigates the incidence of fatal childhood injuries as well as sex differences across psychosocial development stages. ⋯ The exposure to environmental and social risks is differentially moderated with maturing age and levels of autonomy. The sex of the child also informs risk. The nature of these risks is important when considering child injury prevention strategies.
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Child Care Health Dev · Jan 2015
ReviewBeyond symptom control for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): what can parents do to improve outcomes?
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and its associated behavioural manifestations develop and progress as the result of complex gene-environment interactions. Parents exert a substantial influence and play a major role in their child's social environment. Despite this, recent evidence has suggested that adapting the child's environment via parenting interventions has minimal effects on child ADHD symptoms when analysing data from informants who are probably blind to treatment allocation. ⋯ Parenting interventions can have therapeutic benefits for parents as well as children, which is important as parent and child well-being is likely to have a transactional relationship. Evaluation of the clinical success of parenting interventions should focus on a wider range of outcomes in order to aid understanding of the multifaceted benefits that they may be able to offer. Parenting interventions should not be seen as a redundant adjunct to medication in multi-modal treatment approaches for ADHD; they have the potential to target outcomes that, at present, medication seems less able to improve.
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Child Care Health Dev · Jan 2015
Prevalence and risk factors for stunting and severe stunting among children under three years old in mid-western rural areas of China.
Adequate nutrition is needed to ensure optimum growth and development of infants and young children. Although the national economy has developed rapidly during recent decades in China, malnutrition continues to be a major public health problem. The aim of the present study was undertaken to assess the prevalence and risk factors associated with stunting and severe stunting under 3 years old in mid-western rural areas in China. ⋯ These results indicate that malnutrition is still a major public health problem among children under 3 years old. The government should implement appropriate nutritional intervention strategies to help reduce the prevalence of malnutrition in children.