The Effect of a Health Application on Caregiver Behaviors for Preschool Children at Risk of Non-Communicable Diseases
Keywords:
Health care application, Caregiver, Preschool children at risk of non-communicable diseasesAbstract
This two-group quasi-experimental research aimed to investigate the effect of using a health-focused parenting application on the health-related child-rearing behaviors of caregivers with preschool children at risk of non-communicable diseases. A total of 70 participants were divided into two groups, 35 in each group. The control group received usual care, and the experimental group received usual care combined with the parenting application. Research instruments included the health-focused parenting application for caregivers of preschool children at risk of non-communicable diseases and a questionnaire on caregivers’ health-related child-rearing behaviors, which had a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of .76. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the t-test.
The findings revealed that the experimental group had a significantly higher mean score for health-related child-rearing behaviors after the experiment (Mean = 1.86, SD = .99) when compared to before the experiment (Mean = 1.59, SD = .09; t-test = 8.083, p-value < .001). The experimental group had a significantly higher mean score for health-related child-rearing behaviors (Mean = 1.86, SD = .99) compared to the control group (Mean = 1.73, SD = .10; t-test = 1.270, p-value < .001). Therefore, the parenting application can promote a change in the caregivers’ health-related child-rearing behaviors.
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