Parents' perceptions of care quality at child health centres: A cross-sectional study from Sweden.
Anna Jacobzon, Åsa Engström, Silje Rysst Gustafsson and 1 others
PMID 38923645WHAT IT FOUND
Swedish parents rated child health centre care as generally good, but reported significant gaps in advice on breastfeeding, sleep, behaviour, crying, dental care and allergy prevention.
They also felt care was driven more by staff routines than their own needs.
Key findings
01Parents rated the quality of information and advice they received as suboptimal for breastfeeding, sleep, the child's behaviour, dental care, allergy prevention and the child's crying.
02The item stating that the child's care was determined by staff routines rather than the child's or parent's requests and needs was rated as being of suboptimal quality.
03Parents born in the Nordic countries and those with a university education rated their perceived reality of care quality lower than parents born outside the Nordic countries or with compulsory/secondary school education.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The response rate was low at 19.4%, and the participants were predominantly university-educated women born in Sweden, which limits how well the findings represent the wider population. The study was conducted during the post-pandemic period, where restrictions on attending appointments and cancelled support groups may have influenced parents' perceptions of care quality. Because data on non-responders was incomplete, the researchers could not analyse whether those who did not reply had different views.
Declared interests
The authors declared no competing or conflicting interests.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the overall 'optimal' rating as evidence that care quality is high across the board. The study defines optimal as a mean score above 3.0 on a 1-4 scale, but this average masks specific areas where parents rated the care they received as suboptimal, particularly regarding advice on common infant issues like sleep and crying.