Health Personnel’s Perceived Usefulness of Internet-Based Interventions for Parents of Children Younger Than 5 Years: Cross-Sectional Web-Based Survey Study

Abstract

Background Approximately 10%-15% of children struggle with different socioemotional and psychological difficulties in infancy and early childhood. Thus, health service providers should have access to mental health interventions that can reach more parents than traditional face-to-face interventions. However, despite increasing evidence on the efficacy of internet-based mental health interventions, the pace in transferring such interventions to health care has been slow. One of the major suggested barriers to this may be the health personnel’s attitudes to perceived usefulness of internet-based interventions. Objective The purpose of this study was to examine health professionals’ perceived usefulness of internet-based mental health interventions and to identify the key areas that they consider new internet-based services to be useful. Methods Between May and September 2018, 2884 leaders and practitioners of infant and child health services were recruited to a cross-sectional web-based survey through the following channels: (1) existing email addresses from the Regional Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Eastern and Southern Norway, course database, (2) an official mailing list to infant and child health services, (3) social media, or (4) other recruitment channels. Respondents filled in background information and were asked to rate the usefulness of internet-based interventions for 12 different infant and child mental health problem areas based on the broad categories from the Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood (DC:0-5). Perceived usefulness was assessed with 1 global item: “How often do you think internet-based self-help programs can be useful for following infant and child mental health problems in your line of work?” The answers were scored on a 4-point scale ranging from 0 (never) to 3 (often). Results The participants reported that they sometimes or often perceived internet-based interventions as useful for different infant and child mental health problems (scale of 0-3, all means>1.61). Usefulness of internet-based interventions was rated acceptable for sleep problems (mean 2.22), anxiety (mean 2.09), and social withdrawal and shyness (mean 2.07), whereas internet-based interventions were rated as less useful for psychiatric problems such as obsessive behaviors (mean 1.89), developmental disorders (mean 1.91), or trauma (mean 1.61). Further, there were a few but small differences in perceived usefulness between service leaders and practitioners (all effect sizes<0.32, all P<.02) and small-to-moderate differences among daycare centers, well-baby clinics, municipal child welfare services, and child and adolescent mental health clinics (all effect sizes<0.69, all P<.006). Conclusions Internet-based interventions for different infant and child mental health problems within services such as daycare centers, well-baby clinics, municipal child welfare services, and child and adolescent mental health clinics are sometimes or often perceived as useful. These encouraging findings can support the continued exploration of internet-based mental health interventions as a way to improve parental support.

Internet-based interventions for perinatal depression and anxiety symptoms: an ethnographic qualitative study exploring the views and opinions of midwives in Switzerland

“…Evidence indicates that women in the perinatal period who do not understand the local language or have a different cultural background may refrain from using internet-based interventions [ 54 , 55 ]. Moreover, 17 of our participants would not recommend internet-based interventions to patients with severe mental disorders, which concurs with the recommendations of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines [ 92 ] and with findings on the perceptions of health practitioners [ 75 ]. However, none of the interviewees suggested that women should be screened before recommending an internet-based intervention.…”

“…According to our findings, 25 interviewees have a positive perception of internet-based interventions, believing them to be effective and suitable for use by affected persons. This corresponds to previous studies examining health professionals’ perceptions of internet-based interventions for the postpartum period [ 59 ] and for parents of young children with mental health problems [ 75 ]. By contrast, with respect to online psychotherapeutic interventions for diagnosed depression, Montero-Marin and colleagues suggested that primary health care personnel might show resistance to patients’ use of internet-based interventions [ 76 ].…”

Identifying and developing strategies for implementation of a guided internet- and mobile-based infant sleep intervention in well-baby and community mental health clinics using group concept mapping

“…Digital interventions can provide standardized, evidence-based and accessible care ‘where parents are’, that is, in their local communities, at home, and online. Parents actively search for information about infant sleep and health online [ 7 , 8 ], and most parents and HPs are interested in internet-based infant sleep programs [ 8 , 9 ]. Despite this, research on internet- and mobile-based interventions (IMIs) for pediatric insomnia in typically developed young children is still in its infancy.…”

Parent-targeted eHealth technologies for premature babies´ care: An integrative review

“…Nos últimos anos, pais de bebês e crianças que nasceram prematuros costumam consultar a internet, antes mesmo de um profissional de saúde, por meio de mecanismos de busca e/ou redes sociais para obter informações relacionadas à saúde e aos cuidados com seus filhos (Størksen et al, 2020). Mais especificamente, pais de bebês que permaneceram na UTIN buscam plataformas responsivas, cursos de educação à distância (EaD) e aplicativos móveis, a partir de seus telefones celulares, para pesquisar mais informações sobre a saúde e o bem-estar de seus bebês (Orr et al, 2017).…”