Intervention to Reduce Diaper Need and Increase Use of Pediatric Preventive Care

Summary

Well-child care is the primary source of preventative health care for children. These visits provide an opportunity for physicians to assess an infant's biomedical health, development, and behavior, as well as help ensure timely immunizations, reduce the use of acute care services, and assess and family functioning. Yet, disparities in the utilization of pediatric care exist by race, ethnicity and income in the U.S., even despite high rates of overall access to primary care. Incentives have been proposed as one way to increase utilization of preventative care for mothers and children.

Diapering is another important form of preventative health care that can be particularly difficult for low-income parents due the cost of diapers, which is $70-80 per child per month, or approximately $960 per year, on average. And government programs, such as Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), either cannot be used to purchase diapers, or do not provide enough assistance to cover the cost of diapers and other basic needs. A family's inability to provide an adequate supply of diapers for their child is called diaper need. Nationwide, one in three families with young children report experiencing diaper need, which was found to be significantly associated with maternal stress and depression, which in turn, can have a detrimental impact on a family's health and economic success.

The primary goal of this study is to conduct a randomized controlled trial of a diaper provision intervention designed to increase utilization of, and adherence to, well-child visits and reduce diaper need among low-resourced families in New Haven, CT.

Conditions

• Diaper Dermatitis
• Urinary Tract Infections
• Infection
• Depressive Symptoms
• Stress

Interventions

OTHER

Diaper Incentive

A diaper incentive will be distributed to participants in the Intervention condition at 4-time points, which will coincide with the well-child visits that occur at 2-weeks, 2-months, 4-months, and 6-months. A follow-up assessment will also occur approximately 3 months after the family received their final distribution of diapers.

OTHER

Conditional Cash Transfer Condition

Participants in the control condition will receive the cash equivalent value of the diapers distributed to the Experimental Condition for their participation at 4-time points, which will coincide with the well-child visits that occur at 2-weeks, 2-months, 4-months, and 6-months. A follow-up assessment will also occur approximately 3 months after the family received their final conditional cash transfer.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Diaper Bank Network

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Yale New Haven Health Primary Care Consortium

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Yale University

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2019-04-01

Primary Completion

2020-08-17

Completion

2020-08-17

Countries

• United States

Study Locations