Low SES Parents Report More Benefits of Trustworthy Easy-to-read Web-Based Parenting Information: A 4-Year Time Series

Context: Almost all parents search web-based information for their children. This study focuses on parents with low socioeconomic status (SES), a correlate of health literacy (determinants of child education/health); specifically, their experience of seeking information on the Naître et Grandir (N&G) website (trustworthy information on child development, education and health in clear language).

Objectives: To measure the influence of a health literacy intervention on (a) the frequency of the utilization of a questionnaire to understand the perceived outcomes of N&G information, and (b) parents’ expected benefits of this information.

Study Design and Analysis: A 4-year prospective time series. Statistical analyses were descriptive and inferential.

Setting: For each N&G webpage, parents are invited to complete a questionnaire (Information Assessment Method, IAM) to report their intention to use and expected benefits of the webpage information.

Population studied: Quebec parents of 0-8-year-old children who completed at least one IAM questionnaire.

Intervention: An improved version of the IAM, the IAM+ was developed with low SES parents and implemented in January 2019.

Main outcome measures: IAM data were collected in the pre-intervention (2017-2018) and the post-intervention (2019-2020) periods.

Results: Participants completed 10,362 IAM questionnaires. The proportion of responses and reported benefits from low SES participants increased post-intervention. Low SES participants and particularly low SES fathers expected greater benefits from the accessed web information compared to other participants and mothers.

Conclusions: Results suggest (a) family physicians recommend trustworthy easy-to-read information resources to all patients when needed, including patients with a low literacy level; (b) web content that incorporates international health literacy standards is associated with greater expected benefits among low SES parents; (c) increasing father awareness and father-inclusive content can lead to greater expected benefits; and (d) the IAM questionnaire that is accessible on all devices, including smartphones, can help low SES parents provide feedback to web editors regarding the outcomes of their content.