Laws Rachel, Walsh Adam D, Hesketh Kylie D, Downing Katherine L, Kuswara Konsita, Campbell Karen J
Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia.
Centre for Research Excellence in the Early Prevention of Obesity in Childhood, Sydney, Australia.
J Med Internet Res. 2019 Jan 23;21(1):e11454. doi: 10.2196/11454.
In early life, both mothers and fathers are important influences on their children's diet, active play, and obesity risk. Parents are increasingly relying on the internet and social media as a source of information on all aspects of parenting. However, little is known about the use of Web-based sources of information relevant to family lifestyle behaviors and, in particular, differences between mothers' and fathers' use and sociodemographic predictors.
The objective of this study was to examine if mothers and fathers differ in their use of the internet for information on their own health and their child's health, feeding, and playing and to examine sociodemographic predictors of the use of the internet for information on these topics.
We conducted a secondary analysis on data collected from mothers (n=297) and fathers (n=207) participating in the extended Infant Feeding, Activity and Nutrition Trial (InFANT Extend) when their children were 36 months of age. The main outcome variables were the use of the internet for information gathering for parents' own health and child health, feeding, and playing. Binary logistic regression was used to examine the sociodemographic predictors of outcomes.
Compared with fathers (n=296), a higher proportion of mothers (n=198) used the internet for information on their own health (230, 78.5% vs 93, 46.5%), child health (226, 77.1% vs 84, 42.4%), child feeding (136, 46.3% vs 35, 17.5%), and child play (123, 42.1% vs 28, 14.0%) and intended to use Facebook to connect with other parents (200, 74.9% vs 43, 30.5%). Despite the high use of the internet to support family health behaviors, only 15.9% (47/296) of mothers reported consulting health practitioners for advice and help for their own or their child's weight, diet, or physical activity. Sociodemographic predictors of internet use differed between mothers and fathers and explained only a small proportion of the variance in internet use to support healthy family lifestyle behaviors.
Our findings support the use of the internet and Facebook as an important potential avenue for reaching mothers with information relevant to their own health, child health, child diet, and active play. However, further research is required to understand the best avenues for engaging fathers with information on healthy family lifestyle behaviors to support this important role in their child's life.
ISRCTN Registry ISRCTN81847050; http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN81847050.
在儿童早期，母亲和父亲对孩子的饮食、积极玩耍及肥胖风险都有重要影响。父母越来越依赖互联网和社交媒体作为育儿各方面信息的来源。然而，对于与家庭生活方式行为相关的网络信息来源，尤其是母亲和父亲在使用上的差异以及社会人口统计学预测因素，我们知之甚少。
本研究的目的是检验母亲和父亲在利用互联网获取自身健康、孩子健康、喂养及玩耍方面信息的情况是否存在差异，并检验利用互联网获取这些主题信息的社会人口统计学预测因素。
我们对参与扩展婴儿喂养、活动与营养试验（InFANT Extend）的母亲（n = 297）和父亲（n = 207）在其孩子36个月大时收集的数据进行了二次分析。主要结局变量是利用互联网为父母自身健康、孩子健康、喂养及玩耍收集信息。采用二元逻辑回归分析来检验结局的社会人口统计学预测因素。
与父亲（n = 296）相比，有更高比例的母亲（n = 198）利用互联网获取自身健康（230，78.5% 对 93，46.5%）、孩子健康（226，77.1% 对 84，42.4%）、孩子喂养（136，46.3% 对 35，17.5%）及孩子玩耍（123，42.1% 对 28，14.0%）方面的信息，并且打算使用脸书与其他父母建立联系（200，74.9% 对 43，30.5%）。尽管互联网在支持家庭健康行为方面使用频繁，但只有15.9%（47/296）的母亲报告就自己或孩子的体重、饮食或身体活动向健康从业者咨询建议和寻求帮助。母亲和父亲在互联网使用的社会人口统计学预测因素上存在差异，且这些因素仅解释了支持健康家庭生活方式行为的互联网使用差异中的一小部分。
我们的研究结果支持将互联网和脸书作为向母亲提供与其自身健康、孩子健康、孩子饮食及积极玩耍相关信息的重要潜在途径。然而，需要进一步研究以了解让父亲获取有关健康家庭生活方式行为信息的最佳途径，以支持他们在孩子生活中的这一重要角色。
国际标准随机对照试验编号（ISRCTN）ISRCTN81,847,050；http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN81847050 。
