Computer-tailored health information for parents with young children combined with personal counselling in well-child care.

Parents determine to a large extent the health, development and well being of their children. Parents are in need of information and support that is based on their individual characteristics and situation. Dutch well-child care organizations function on a high level and have a large reach in the general population (90%). One of the main tasks of well-child care organizations is to give parents the health information they need. The main goal of this project is to support the parents of young children (age 0-4 years old) with the questions they can have regarding the optimal health, nutrition and safety of their child. A secondary goal is to support youth health care organizations in their estimation of health education needs and to translate these needs into tailored health information. Therefore a computer-tailored health education tool will be developed, which can be offered to parents in combination with personal counselling. The tool will be developed in dialogue with parents and youth health care organizations and implemented among two youth health care organizations.

The computer-tailored health information in combination with personal counselling leads to:
1. Improvement of health behaviors;
2. Improvement of parental satisfaction with well-child care visits;
3. Improvement of well-child care provider satisfaction with well-child care visits.

Parents are randomised into one of two groups below:
1. Tailored health information in combination with personal counselling; or 2. Usual care.
Depending on the age of the child, the topics of the tailored health education program will differ. Parents of baby's (n=240) will receive health information on safety behaviors. Parents of toddlers (n=240) will receive health information on overweight related health behaviors: physical activity and nutrition. Parents in the intervention group will access the computer-tailored health education program at their homes through the internet. After completion of the assessment questions, the program compiles a tailored health information handout. During the next well-child visit the well-child care provider will discuss this tailored health information with the parent.