Discipline of Psychiatry and Mental Health, School of Clinical Medicine, University of New South Wales, Kensington, New South Wales, Australia
Karitane, Carramar, New South Wales, Australia.
BMJ Open. 2024 Feb 13;14(2):e077024. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-077024.
Australian early parenting residential services provide interventions for families experiencing complex early parenting issues. Many services have recently shifted to virtual care models but the clinical effectiveness of such programmes is currently unknown. This study sought to test outcomes of a 'virtual' early parenting residential programme and to compare these with those of an in-person programme.
Prospective cohort study; self-report questionnaires on admission, at discharge and 6-week follow-up.
An early parenting residential unit in Sydney, Australia.
Consecutive series of parent-child dyads admitted to the unit virtually (n=56) or in person (n=44) between August 2021 and January 2022.
Participants in both groups received a 4-night/5-day intervention programme involving access to 24-hour support from a multidisciplinary team of health professionals. The in-person programme was delivered at a residential unit; the virtual programme involved provision of support via video calls, phone calls, SMS and emails.
Infant sleep, parenting self-efficacy (primary outcomes); parenting empathy, emotion, hostility, helplessness, mentalisation and stress (secondary outcomes).
Parents who received the virtual programme reported improvements from admission to discharge, and from admission to 6-week follow-up, in a range of areas including parenting self-efficacy, empathy, mentalisation, hostility, helplessness, stress and infant sleep resistance (ps<0.05). At 6 weeks, they also reported improvements in emotion and understanding related to their child (p<0.05). In contrast to expectation, outcomes at discharge and 6 weeks were not superior in the in-person group. In fact, at 6 weeks, parents who attended the virtual residential group reported significantly lower levels of parenting hostility and parenting stress, and greater levels of parenting confidence compared with those in the in-person group (ps<0.05).
Virtual early parenting residential interventions may be effective in bringing positive changes for families, and there is no evidence to suggest that outcomes are inferior to those of in-person programmes.
澳大利亚早期育儿寄宿服务为那些面临复杂早期育儿问题的家庭提供干预措施。许多服务最近已转向虚拟护理模式，但此类项目的临床效果目前尚不清楚。本研究旨在测试“虚拟”早期育儿寄宿项目的结果，并将其与面对面项目的结果进行比较。
前瞻性队列研究；在入院时、出院时和 6 周随访时使用自我报告问卷。
澳大利亚悉尼的一个早期育儿寄宿单位。
2021 年 8 月至 2022 年 1 月期间，连续系列的母婴对通过虚拟（n=56）或面对面（n=44）方式入住该单位。
两组参与者均接受为期 4 晚/5 天的干预计划，包括接受来自多学科健康专业人员团队的 24 小时支持。面对面的项目在寄宿单位进行；虚拟项目则通过视频通话、电话、短信和电子邮件提供支持。
婴儿睡眠、育儿自我效能感（主要结果）；育儿同理心、情绪、敌意、无助、心理化和压力（次要结果）。
接受虚拟项目的父母在一系列领域（包括育儿自我效能感、同理心、心理化、敌意、无助、压力和婴儿睡眠抵抗）从入院到出院以及从入院到 6 周随访均有改善（p<0.05）。在 6 周时，他们还报告说，他们对孩子的情绪和理解有所改善（p<0.05）。与预期相反，面对面组在出院和 6 周时的结果并不优越。事实上，在 6 周时，参加虚拟寄宿组的父母报告说，他们的育儿敌意和育儿压力明显较低，而育儿信心则高于面对面组（p<0.05）。
虚拟早期育儿寄宿干预措施可能对家庭带来积极的变化，而且没有证据表明其效果不如面对面项目。
