None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
VIHSP is a state-wide universal newborn hearing screening program in Victoria, Australia. Approximately 0.8% of infants receive a positive (‘refer’) result on their hearing screen and are referred to one of approximately 13 Victorian diagnostic audiology clinics for further assessment of their hearing. As part of routine clinical care (usual care), parents of infants referred to diagnostic audiology are contacted by VIHSP Area Managers to discuss the referral and assist to organise the initial diagnostic audiology appointment. Parents are then contacted by a member of the VIHSP ESS team. The VIHSP ESS assign a dedicated case-facilitator who provides preparatory written/verbal information about the diagnostic audiology appointment. The ESS facilitator is available to support each family prior to the diagnostic audiology appointment right up to enrolment into early intervention (as required). ESS is available to be contacted by the family at any time in the diagnostic and intervention pathway. Parents also speak with, and may receive, written/verbal information about the diagnostic appointment from the audiology clinic they attend. As an additional resource, VIHSP have developed an information video to help prepare parents for their infant's diagnostic audiology appointment. The information video follows a mother and her infant as they attended the infant’s initial diagnostic audiology appointment. This information video is approximately six-minutes in length and provides the viewer with both visual and auditory information about the audiology equipment, the likely sequence of events, the purpose of each test, and how best to prepare their infant for the appointment. This is a single site randomised controlled trial, embedded in clinical care, with an active control group. One parent/caregiver per infant referred to diagnostic audiology during the recruitment period will be invited to participate. Participants will be randomly allocated to either a control (usual care) or intervention group (usual care + intervention) and asked to complete one online survey prior to their infant's audiology appointment. Those in the intervention group will also be asked to view the six-minute information video embedded within the online survey. This study aims to explore if, in addition to usual care, providing an information video prior to an infant's diagnostic audiology appointment has an impact on: • parent/caregiver knowledge and understanding about the diagnostic process • parent/caregiver anxiety • the number of infant diagnostic audiology appointments required to reach a diagnosis It is hypothesised that: •Parents/caregivers in the intervention group will have higher knowledge scores and lower anxiety scores compared to the control (usual care) group •Infants of parents/caregivers in the intervention group will require fewer diagnostic audiology appointments to achieve an audiology diagnosis compared to infants of parents in the control group
Interventions
The Victorian Infant Hearing Screening Program (VIHSP) is a state-wide program that screens the hearing of newborn babies in their first few weeks of life. Approximately 0.8% of infants receive a positive (‘refer’) result on their hearing screen and are referred to one of 13 Victorian diagnostic audiology clinics for further assessment of their hearing.
The intervention used in this study is an information video resource developed by VIHSP. The information video follows a mother and her infant a
The Victorian Infant Hearing Screening Program (VIHSP) is a state-wide program that screens the hearing of newborn babies in their first few weeks of life. Approximately 0.8% of infants receive a positive (‘refer’) result on their hearing screen and are referred to one of 13 Victorian diagnostic audiology clinics for further assessment of their hearing. The intervention used in this study is an information video resource developed by VIHSP. The information video follows a mother and her infant as they attended the infant’s initial diagnostic audiology appointment. The information video was designed to help prepare parents for their infant's diagnostic audiology appointment. This information video is approximately six-minutes in length and provides the viewer with both visual and auditory information about the audiology equipment, the likely sequence of events, the purpose of each test, and how best to prepare their infant for the appointment. All parents/caregivers whose baby is referred to audiology have preparatory information provided by VIHSP and the diagnostic audiology centre as part of usual care. The information video will be provided to parent/caregivers allocated to the intervention group, in addition to the resources provided as part of usual care. The information video will be provided prior to the infant diagnostic audiology appointment. It will be provided to parents/caregivers within the single time-point online study survey. Completing the online survey involves watching the six-minute information video (for those in the intervention group) and answering a series of questions, including demographic, knowledge about the diagnostic audiology appointment, feelings about the diagnostic audiology appointment and answering items from a standardised anxiety measure. For the intervention group, participants complete the demographic questions first, watch the information video, then answer all other questions. Participants in the intervention group will also answer specific questions about the usefulness of the video and whether they would recommend it to others. Analysis of the survey data will be used to describe parent/caregivers’ perception of the video, feedback about the video and impact of the video on knowledge an anxiety. The period of intervention (and data collection) lies between referral to audiology and the appointment date (median 13 days).
Sponsors
The Royal Children's Hospital
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Educational / counselling / training
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Caregiver)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Parents/caregivers who have: • an infant who received a referral (screen refer or direct refer) to audiology from VIHSP during the study recruitment period • the capacity to provide informed consent to participate • internet access and the capacity (via a device and valid email address) to receive study documents electronically and complete study activities online • sufficient English that they can complete the study documents and activities adequately without the use of an interpreter.
Exclusion criteria
Parents/caregivers • whose infant is medically unstable or being palliated • whose infant is in ‘out of home care’ • who are unable to complete the study documents and activities due to their English language level • who exhibit a level of distress whereby VIHSP staff consider an invitation to participate in the study to be detrimental to their wellbeing.
Outcome results
None listed