Evidence for investing in parenting interventions aiming to improve child health: a systematic review of economic evaluations

Abstract

A comprehensive review of the economic evidence on parenting interventions targeting different aspects of child health is lacking to support decision-making. The aim of this review is to provide an up to date synthesis of the available health economic evidence for parenting interventions aiming to improve child health. A systematic review was conducted with articles identified through Econlit, Medline, PsychINFO, and ERIC databases. Only full economic evaluations comparing two or more options, considering both costs and outcomes were included. We assessed the quality of the studies using the Drummond checklist. We identified 44 studies of varying quality that met inclusion criteria; 22 targeting externalizing behaviors, five targeting internalizing problems, and five targeting other mental health problems including autism and alcohol abuse. The remaining studies targeted child abuse (n = 5), obesity (n = 3), and general health (n = 4). Studies varied considerably and many suffered from methodological limitations, such as limited costing perspectives, challenges with outcome measurement and short-time horizons. Parenting interventions showed good value for money in particular for preventing child externalizing and internalizing behaviors. For the prevention of child abuse, some programs had the potential of being cost-saving over the longer-term. Interventions were not cost-effective for the treatment of autism and obesity. Future research should include a broader spectrum of societal costs and quality-of-life impacts on both children and their caregivers.

Brief parenting intervention (Triple P) for families of children with eczema: a randomized controlled trial

“…The cost per participant would be further reduced if the newly trained staff were to be retained and be involved in delivering the program in future years, thus spreading the additional training costs over multiple years of program delivery. These results add to the literature on the costs versus benefits of delivering evidence-based parenting intervention to families ( Sampaio et al, 2022 ) and supports the feasibility of delivering brief group-based parenting intervention to families of children with eczema in a pediatric setting via trained practitioners from within the healthcare team.…”

Exploring participation and engagement in a multi-component, universal early parenting programme

“…Parent support programmes to prevent adverse outcomes in childhood and to promote optimal well-being over the lifespan are increasingly common (Daelmans et al , 2015; Sampaio et al , 2022). These kinds of programmes sit within the broader spectrum of early help and can be generally characterised as manualised interventions which aim to reduce risk factors and enhance protective factors early in childhood (Edwards et al , 2021).…”

Methods of assessing value for money of UK-based early childhood public health interventions: a systematic literature review

“…[17][18][19] These challenges may in-part explain why a number of large-scale early childhood preventative interventions have failed to show cost-effectiveness 13 and why gaps exist between the evidence base and decision-making. 20 Previous literature reviews in a paediatric setting have focussed on economic evaluations of specific intervention categories, such as vaccinations, 21 parenting interventions, 22,23 health promotion, 24 -26 and oral health. 27 Furthermore, these reviews have not limited the results to a specific country or jurisdiction.…”

“…Previous literature reviews in a paediatric setting have focussed on economic evaluations of specific intervention categories, such as vaccinations, 21 parenting interventions, 22 , 23 health promotion, 24–26 and oral health. 27 Furthermore, these reviews have not limited the results to a specific country or jurisdiction.…”