Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
China Research Center on Disability Issues, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Front Public Health. 2023 Jan 11;10:1049851. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1049851. eCollection 2022.
Unintentional injury among children represents a major public health problem. Online-social-network-based parental-health-education is a potential way to reduce child unintentional injuries. The study aimed to explore the mechanisms by which online-social-network-based health education may reduce the unintentional injuries among children aged 0-3 years.
We conducted a participant-blinded, randomized controlled, online-social-network-based health-education intervention study from March 2019 to February 2020 in Shanghai. We established four WeChat groups (two intervention groups and two control groups). For the intervention groups, a doctor's assistant regularly delivered information regarding unintentional injuries among children, and community childcare doctors answered parents' questions concerning their children's health, including unintentional injuries. Meanwhile, the control groups did not receive any information from the assistant. The study selected one intervention group and one control group and compared the ego network and whole network indicators to determine the differences between the intervention and control groups.
In the intervention and control groups, 64.5% and 31.9% of the members, respectively, engaged in communication, and 1,736 and 273 records, respectively, were obtained. Regarding ego network, the doctor showed the largest network in the intervention group, and the size of the intervention group's network was twice that of the control group; the number of ties in the intervention group was nine times that of the control group. Fourteen and four parents in the intervention and control group played an active role, respectively. Regarding centrality, all WeChat groups were loose and multiple centers existed. Regarding subgroup cohesion, the intervention group had 28 cliques with 27 members, and the control group had 4 cliques with 4 members. For structural hole, 23.7% and 7.5% members in the intervention and control group actively participated in interactions, respectively, having strong control and influence over other parents; 69.2% and 59.1% members in the intervention and control group, respectively, had values of < 1.000, showing that they had strong ability to cross-jump structural holes.
Online-social-networks-based health education interventions could enhance communication among parents, and between parents and community childcare doctors, and also shorten the social distance between them. Thus, online-social-network-based parental-health-education-intervention can be a feasible and generalizable means of preventing unintentional injuries among children.
儿童意外伤害是一个重大的公共卫生问题。基于在线社交网络的家长健康教育是减少儿童意外伤害的一种潜在方法。本研究旨在探讨基于在线社交网络的健康教育可能降低 0-3 岁儿童意外伤害的机制。
我们于 2019 年 3 月至 2020 年 2 月在上海进行了一项参与者盲法、随机对照、基于在线社交网络的健康教育干预研究。我们建立了四个微信群（两个干预组和两个对照组）。对于干预组，助理医生定期发布有关儿童意外伤害的信息，社区儿童保健医生回答家长关于其子女健康的问题，包括意外伤害。同时，对照组没有收到助手的任何信息。本研究选择了一个干预组和一个对照组，并比较了自我网络和整个网络指标，以确定干预组和对照组之间的差异。
在干预组和对照组中，分别有 64.5%和 31.9%的成员进行了交流，分别获得了 1736 条和 273 条记录。在自我网络方面，医生在干预组中表现出最大的网络，干预组的网络规模是对照组的两倍；干预组的联系数量是对照组的九倍。干预组和对照组分别有 14 位和 4 位家长发挥了积极作用。关于中心性，所有微信群都是松散的，存在多个中心。关于亚群内聚性，干预组有 28 个小团体，有 27 名成员，对照组有 4 个小团体，有 4 名成员。关于结构洞，干预组有 23.7%和对照组有 7.5%的成员积极参与互动，对其他家长具有较强的控制和影响；干预组有 69.2%和对照组有 59.1%的成员的数值<1.000，表明他们具有很强的跨越结构洞的能力。
基于在线社交网络的健康教育干预可以增强家长之间、家长与社区儿童保健医生之间的沟通，缩短他们之间的社会距离。因此，基于在线社交网络的家长健康教育干预可以成为预防儿童意外伤害的一种可行和可推广的方法。
