Mothers' use of and attitudes to BabyCheck

Thomson, H., Ross, S., Wilson, P., McConnachie, A. and Watson, R. (2002) Mothers' use of and attitudes to BabyCheck. British Journal of General Practice, 52(477), pp. 314-316.

Abstract

A copy of BabyCheck was sent to 497 mothers shortly after the birth of their baby. Six months later they were sent a questionnaire asking about their use of and attitudes to, BabyCheck. Questionnaires were returned by 323 (65%) mothers; 215 (67%) of them reported reading BabyCheck, the majority found it easy to understand (74%) and agreed with the advice (67%). Eighty-four (26%) of the mothers who returned the questionnaires reported using BabyCheck when their baby was ill; of these, 71% agreed with the advice and 65% trusted the advice. None of the mothers had used the complete range of tests. This lead to our conclusion that BabyCheck is well accepted among mothers but is not used routinely as part of mothers' response to illness in their babies. BabyCheck requires introductory education to ensure that parents score all the tests and that the predictive power of BabyCheck is not compromised. Further evaluation of BabyCheck is needed to find its ideal role in the assessment and monitoring of infant illness.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: McConnachie, Professor Alex and Wilson, Prof Philip
• Authors: Thomson, H., Ross, S., Wilson, P., McConnachie, A., and Watson, R.
• Subjects: R Medicine > R Medicine (General)
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Health & Wellbeing > Robertson Centre; College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Health & Wellbeing > General Practice and Primary Care; College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Medicine, Dentistry & Nursing > Clinical Specialities
• Journal Name: British Journal of General Practice
• ISSN: 0960-1643
• ISSN (Online): 1478-5242

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