Population health information interventions: Examining the perspectives of young parents

Systemic approaches to provide health information to populations are a major element of the population health intervention repertoire. Maternal-child health has long been a population health priority, with unwed and/or teenage mothers being constructed as a 'high risk' population, subject to intensive health communication campaigns. This proposed project will study population health information interventions aimed at young parents, including but not limited to the new British Columbia Nurse Family Partnership (NFP). Taking an in-depth, qualitative approach, this study will explore how and why information interventions impact health behaviour and equity and take into nuanced account the multiple, concurrent influences of context and social determinants. The proposed study will: 1) Describe the perspectives of childbearing and parenting youth, as well as service providers, on existing and unfolding population health information interventions, including the NFP and other interventions directed at young parents both within and outside the health sector. 2) Examine the extent to which community, academic and government stakeholders dialogue to generate policy-relevant information in this substantive area. 3) Use the data generated in the proposed study to inform the development of a set of knowledge exchange activities to enhance the likelihood that population health information interventions will positively affect health equity in this area. Partnering with community organizations that serve young parents (ages 15-24), we will conduct interviews over a period of 2 years with 30 young parents, and conduct participant observation at young parent program service sites. We also will examine perspectives of service providers and policy/program decision makers in order to gain further insights into the potential complexities and nuances of engaging in population health information interventions.