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Published on: January 12, 2018
[What do paediatricians and mothers talk about in the well-child program visits?]
1Departamento de Psicología, Universidad del Algarve, Faro, Portugal. csnunes@ualg.pt
Insights
Paediatricians provide essential child development and education counseling. This study analyzed 49 visits, finding dense content and varied paediatrician styles, but no communication barriers related to maternal education.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric medicine
- Developmental pediatrics
- Health communication
Context:
- Paediatricians are a primary source of formal counseling for parents regarding child development and education.
- Limited understanding exists regarding the specific content and characteristics of paediatrician counseling practices.
- This study addresses this gap by analyzing visit duration, discussed topics, and parent-pediatrician initiatives.
Purpose:
- To analyze the content and characteristics of paediatrician counseling during child development and education visits.
- To examine visit duration, topics discussed, and the initiatives of both parents and paediatricians.
- To identify variations in paediatrician practices and communication dynamics.
Summary:
- A content analysis of 49 paediatrician visits revealed dense counseling sessions (14.3 topics/visit) within recommended durations (M=16.1 min).
- Paediatrician priorities included feeding, diseases, and psychomotor development, while mothers focused on minor health issues, growth, and behavior.
- Significant differences in counseling dimensions were noted among paediatricians, with balanced communication and no identified barriers related to maternal education level.
Impact:
- Highlights the diversity in paediatrician counseling styles, offering insights for professional development and practice improvement.
- Demonstrates balanced communication dynamics between paediatricians and mothers, with no educational barriers.
- Suggests incorporating more psychosocial topics to enhance pediatric counseling programs and support child development and education initiatives.
Aims:
Paediatricians are the parents' main formal counselling source on their children's development and education. Unfortunately, there is limited knowledge on the content and the characteristics of their counselling practice. This study analyses the visit duration, topics discussed, and parent and paediatrician initiatives.
Material And Methods:
We performed a content analysis of 49 visits to 5 paediatricians. We classified the topics discussed into 7 categories: secondary prevention, primary prevention, health promotion, development, education, focused on the parents and family relationship.
Results:
The duration of the visit was within the recommended limits (M=16.1; SD=5.6) and the content was very dense (14.3 topics per visit). The paediatricians' priorities were: feeding (100%), diseases (71%), psychomotor development (67%) and growth (53%), and those of the mothers were: minor health problems (37%), growth (33%), feeding (27%) and behaviour (24%). Significant differences among paediatricians were observed in all the studied dimensions. We observed a balance in the communication between paediatricians and mothers in the emission of words and in the introduction of topics. The mother's educational level had no effect on the studied parameters.
Conclusions:
There are different paediatric styles, and their study could help paediatricians to improve their professional practice. We observed a balance in the emission of words and the introduction of topics by paediatricians and mothers. We did not identify communication barriers as regards the mother's educational level. The introduction of more psychosocial topics could help to improve the program.
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