RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Mothers' use of and attitudes to BabyCheck.
JF British Journal of General Practice
JO Br J Gen Pract
FD British Journal of General Practice
SP 314
OP 316
VO 52
IS 477
A1 Hilary Thomson
A1 Sue Ross
A1 Philip Wilson
A1 Alex McConnachie
A1 Richard Watson
YR 2002
UL http://bjgp.org/content/52/477/314.abstract
AB 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.