Health Literacy and Adherence to Age-Appropriate Childcare Recommendations Among Parents in Northeast Thailand

IF 2 4区医学 Q2 PEDIATRICS

Child Care Health and Development Pub Date : 2025-08-21 DOI:10.1111/cch.70156

Kanyanee Wedchakama, Rosawan Areemit

{"title":"Health Literacy and Adherence to Age-Appropriate Childcare Recommendations Among Parents in Northeast Thailand","authors":"Kanyanee Wedchakama, Rosawan Areemit","doi":"10.1111/cch.70156","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div>\n \n \n <section>\n \n <h3> Background</h3>\n \n <p>Children of parents who have higher health literacy (HL) have better outcomes. Most studies on parents' generic HL focus on the capability to manage their own health, rather than the capability to manage their child's health.</p>\n </section>\n \n <section>\n \n <h3> Methods</h3>\n \n <p>Parents of children 0–5 years at the paediatric outpatient department at a university hospital participated in this cross-sectional study by answering a self-administered questionnaire. We used (1) Generic Health Literacy (GHL) Scale for Thais, (2) parent's management and awareness of their child's health-PMATCH, an instrument, which was developed to explore HL, which pertains to the capability to manage their child's health and (3) parents' health promotive practices on age-appropriate childcare recommendations. Cronbach's alpha was used to analyse the internal consistency of HL scales (HL = 0.97 and PMATCH = 0.94) and confirmatory factor analysis was used to analyse the PMATCH scale. Logistic regressions were used to identify associations between HL, PMATCH and parents' practices including dentist visits, exclusive breastfeeding, sleeping on the back, self-feeding and screen time.</p>\n </section>\n \n <section>\n \n <h3> Results</h3>\n \n <p>Of the 144 parents, 82.8% were female; most parents had fair HL (low 4.9%, fair 56.9% and high 38.2%) and high PMATCH. Confirmatory factor analysis standardized loadings and inter-factor correlations for the PMATCH instrument were highly significant. Parents' HL was found to mediate PMATCH on specific outcomes. Although total HL was not significantly associated with parent outcome behaviours, PMATCH-Practice was significantly positively associated with bringing the child to the dentist regularly (AOR 1.74) and negatively associated with the child sleeping on the back (AOR 0.52). We did not find a significant association between total HL, PMATCH and breast feeding, self-feeding or screentime.</p>\n </section>\n \n <section>\n \n <h3> Conclusions</h3>\n \n <p>There is a complex interplay between parental health promotive practices, HL and PMATCH. Future studies should invest in further understanding the relationship between HL and PMATCH, and the causes of non-adherence to formulate better-targeted preventive interventions.</p>\n </section>\n </div>","PeriodicalId":55262,"journal":{"name":"Child Care Health and Development","volume":"51 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0000,"publicationDate":"2025-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Child Care Health and Development","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cch.70156","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PEDIATRICS","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

Children of parents who have higher health literacy (HL) have better outcomes. Most studies on parents' generic HL focus on the capability to manage their own health, rather than the capability to manage their child's health.

Methods

Parents of children 0–5 years at the paediatric outpatient department at a university hospital participated in this cross-sectional study by answering a self-administered questionnaire. We used (1) Generic Health Literacy (GHL) Scale for Thais, (2) parent's management and awareness of their child's health-PMATCH, an instrument, which was developed to explore HL, which pertains to the capability to manage their child's health and (3) parents' health promotive practices on age-appropriate childcare recommendations. Cronbach's alpha was used to analyse the internal consistency of HL scales (HL = 0.97 and PMATCH = 0.94) and confirmatory factor analysis was used to analyse the PMATCH scale. Logistic regressions were used to identify associations between HL, PMATCH and parents' practices including dentist visits, exclusive breastfeeding, sleeping on the back, self-feeding and screen time.

Results

Of the 144 parents, 82.8% were female; most parents had fair HL (low 4.9%, fair 56.9% and high 38.2%) and high PMATCH. Confirmatory factor analysis standardized loadings and inter-factor correlations for the PMATCH instrument were highly significant. Parents' HL was found to mediate PMATCH on specific outcomes. Although total HL was not significantly associated with parent outcome behaviours, PMATCH-Practice was significantly positively associated with bringing the child to the dentist regularly (AOR 1.74) and negatively associated with the child sleeping on the back (AOR 0.52). We did not find a significant association between total HL, PMATCH and breast feeding, self-feeding or screentime.

Conclusions

There is a complex interplay between parental health promotive practices, HL and PMATCH. Future studies should invest in further understanding the relationship between HL and PMATCH, and the causes of non-adherence to formulate better-targeted preventive interventions.

查看原文本刊更多论文

泰国东北部家长的健康素养和对适龄儿童保育建议的依从性

父母健康素养（HL）越高，其子女的预后越好。大多数关于父母非专利HL的研究关注的是管理自己健康的能力，而不是管理孩子健康的能力。方法某大学附属医院儿科门诊0 ~ 5岁儿童家长自行填写问卷，进行横断面研究。我们使用了(1)泰国人的一般健康素养（GHL）量表，(2)父母对孩子健康的管理和意识- pmatch，这是一种用于探索HL的工具，它与管理孩子健康的能力有关，(3)父母在适龄儿童保育建议方面的健康促进实践。采用Cronbach's alpha分析HL量表的内部一致性（HL = 0.97, PMATCH = 0.94），采用验证性因子分析分析PMATCH量表。使用Logistic回归来确定HL、PMATCH与父母习惯（包括牙医就诊、纯母乳喂养、仰卧睡觉、自我喂养和屏幕时间）之间的关联。结果144例父母中，女性占82.8%；多数家长为中等HL（低4.9%，高56.9%，高38.2%）和高PMATCH。PMATCH仪器的验证性因子分析、标准化负荷和因子间相关性非常显著。发现父母的HL介导PMATCH对特定结果的影响。尽管总HL与父母结局行为无显著相关，但PMATCH-Practice与定期带孩子去看牙医显著正相关（AOR为1.74），与孩子仰卧睡觉显著负相关（AOR为0.52）。我们没有发现HL总量、PMATCH与母乳喂养、自我喂养或屏幕时间之间存在显著关联。结论父母健康促进行为、HL和PMATCH之间存在复杂的相互作用。未来的研究应进一步了解HL与PMATCH之间的关系，以及不依从的原因，以制定更有针对性的预防干预措施。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Child Care Health and Development 医学-小儿科

CiteScore

3.40

自引率

5.30%

发文量

136

审稿时长

4-8 weeks

期刊介绍： Child: care, health and development is an international, peer-reviewed journal which publishes papers dealing with all aspects of the health and development of children and young people. We aim to attract quantitative and qualitative research papers relevant to people from all disciplines working in child health. We welcome studies which examine the effects of social and environmental factors on health and development as well as those dealing with clinical issues, the organization of services and health policy. We particularly encourage the submission of studies related to those who are disadvantaged by physical, developmental, emotional and social problems. The journal also aims to collate important research findings and to provide a forum for discussion of global child health issues.