Family-centred care in early intervention: Examining caregiver perceptions of family-centred care and early intervention service use intensity.
Beth M McManus, Natalie J Murphy, Zachary Richardson and 3 others
PMID 31782824WHAT IT FOUND
Parents rated respectful care and partnership highly but scored general information sharing lowest.
Higher service intensity was linked to better perceptions of respectful care and partnership, but not to information exchange. Parents and providers did not agree on most care quality aspects.
Key findings
01General information sharing was the lowest-rated aspect of care for both parents and providers, while respectful care and partnership were rated highly.
02Higher early intervention service intensity was associated with parents perceiving more respectful care and enabling partnership, but was not associated with perceptions of specific or general information exchange.
03Parent and provider ratings of care quality were generally uncorrelated, except for an inverse association where parents reporting more specific information perceived providers as offering less general information.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot prove that higher service intensity causes better perceptions of care; the association could be reversed or due to other factors. The sample was small (29 children) and drawn from a single university program, limiting generalizability. Participants were significantly more educated, higher-income, and more likely white than the general early intervention population, which may bias the findings toward families with more resources. Non-respondents were estimated to be less educated and lower-income than respondents, meaning the results may not reflect the experiences of the most vulnerable families. The study did not account for potential confounders like parental stress or motivation, which can influence perceptions of care quality.
Declared interests
The study was supported by the National Institute of Health (Extramural). No other conflicts of interest were reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that increasing service intensity will improve family satisfaction with information exchange. The study found that while more hours were linked to better perceptions of respectful care and partnership, they had no significant association with how well parents felt they received specific or general information.