Mothers' ranking of clinical intervention strategies used to promote infant health.
OBJECTIVE
To support evidence-based practice for infant health promotion by determining mothers' preferences among eight clinical intervention strategies.


METHODS
A sample of 138 mothers of 4-month-old infants who received care through a county health department used a card sort method to rank order intervention strategies and identified advantages and disadvantages of each method.


RESULTS
The mothers' rank ordering of the clinical intervention strategies, beginning with the most preferred, was: 1. Nurse home visitation; 2. Group session with mothers, led by a nurse; 3. Community lay worker home visitation; 4. Classes in the clinic; 5. Health diary; 6. Videotapes at home; 7. Brochures; and 8. Videotapes in the clinic.


CONCLUSIONS
Intervention strategies that use interpersonal communication, including the opportunity for mothers to ask questions, were most preferred. Strategies that involve one-way messages to mothers were least preferred. Investment in strategies that do not appeal to mothers are likely be ineffective in promoting infant health and wasteful of health care dollars.
Gaffney
K F
KF
College of Nursing and Health Science, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA.
Altieri
L B
LB
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015400:Clinical Nursing Research; D003152:Community Health Nursing; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000145:classification* / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007229:Infant Welfare; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology