Approaches to better engage parent–child in health home-visiting programmes

Abstract

Home visiting is an evidence-based strategy used to enhance child and family health outcomes. Such primary healthcare endeavours demand the full participation of individual and families. We conducted a review to identify approaches to planning, executing and assessing home-visiting health promotion interventions to determine how parents and children can be best engaged. A structured search (2000–2015) was undertaken using a defined search protocol. The quality of the papers was assessed using standard appraisal tools. Sixteen studies were retrieved. A content analysis of the findings sections of the papers was undertaken and guided by the eight phases of the PRECEDE-PROCEED health promotion planning framework. The analysis found that while all the PRECEDE assessment areas were represented no studies included all phases. Parents and children did not appear to be actively involved in undertaking the assessments and evaluation of the home-visiting health promotion programmes. The findings suggest that there is a need to develop a consistent home-visiting approach that includes comprehensive assessments in the planning phases and parent and child involvement at each step of programme development, implementation and evaluation. This approach enables the development of tailored and sustainable health promotion intervention in order to achieve optimal child health outcomes.