[Are advice section illustrations in children's health record books understandable for parents?]

French child health record books contain preventive care illustrations, which may not always be fully understood. The aim of this study was to describe the degree to which illustrations may be understood in the parent advice section of the French child health record, and to determine the factors associated with poor understanding by young parents.

A cross sectional survey was conducted on a sample of 80 parents of children aged 6 or younger from two French areas. Each parent was interviewed following a semi-structured questionnaire that incorporated social and demographic factors and questions about each of the eleven illustrations. The main outcome was the number of correct answers compared to number of expected answers. The data univariate analysis was followed by a multivariate analysis.

The illustrations of "crying baby", "shaken baby syndrome", "baby car safety", "vision deficiency screening" or "hearing deficiency screening" are misunderstood by more than 60% of the parents. Being a father or being unable to read French significantly increased the risk of not finding 6 of the expected prevention items.

The meaning of illustrations from the French child health record is not accessible to every parent despite the fact that they convey important reminders on preventive care. Family physicians and specialist pediatricians should seize opportunities to enhance preventive care education within medical consultations.