Using Baby Books to Promote Maternal and Child Health

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is an application to conduct a randomized study of the cost-effectiveness of providing information about child development and parenting through the use of baby books. The content of these books is based on prenatal-12 month anticipatory guidance recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. It is expected that this information, embedded in the text of baby books, will increase the mother's knowledge of typical child development, child safety, and effective parenting. Additionally, the process of book sharing, coupled with realistic perceptions of development, is expected to improve parent-child interactions. In combination, the increased knowledge and improved interactions are predicted to contribute to better child physical health (e.g. immunization adherence, typical growth, reduced accidents/ emergency room visits, increased cognitive/linguistic development), improved maternal outcomes (e.g. reduced stress, increased self-efficacy and enjoyment), and increased level of stimulation and appropriateness of the environment. Through the utilization of a three group randomized design, we will compare child and maternal outcomes among those who receive books with anticipatory guidance to those who receive commercial children's books without anticipatory guidance or no books at all. This will allow for analysis of the effects of the educational intervention as well as those from just reading to children. Data collection will occur in seven waves over 20 months, with first-time mothers recruited during the third trimester of pregnancy and followed until the child is 18 months old. All data collection procedures and timing will be equivalent among the three groups. We plan to use analytic techniques that compensate for differential attrition and examine differences in growth curves for the relevant hypotheses. Lastly, this study is a low-tech intervention that is easy to scale up to a national level.