User Needs

In order to understand what measures can reduce a child's risk of allergies and to learn about the importance of early childhood allergy prevention (ECAP) in general, parents see health and social care organisations as an important source of information due to their relationship of trust and regular personal contact. However, the relevant professions fulfil a range of different, often care-related roles and tasks and are not considered "health information providers" per se. Recent research findings also show that although healthcare professionals are often aware of scientific findings on allergy prevention, they are not actively passed on. 

The aims of this study are to,

1. To identify which local and regional health and social care organisations are available to provide ECAP information to parents and to identify the barriers, opportunities and preferences in each case, 
2. Develop and test an implementation strategy for how to deliver ECAP information to parents through health and social care organisations, and 
3. Evaluate the pilot implementation from the perspective of the ECAP information providers and recipients. 

The work programme includes seven sequential tasks, structured according to the "Implementation Research Logic Model" by Smith et al. (2020): First, we will establish a Patient-Public Involvement Panel to advise the research project on planning and implementation. Task 2 will use stakeholder mapping to analyse which regional and local actors in the health and social care sector can serve as ECAP information providers. The results will be used to conduct qualitative interviews with the identified stakeholders on barriers and facilitators in the provision of ECAP information. In Task 4, ECAP information materials will be developed, which will be communicated to parents regionally during a six-month pilot implementation phase in Task 5. Task 6 includes the adaptation of Task 3 - Task 5 for parents with a migration background. Task 7 evaluates the pilot implementation process in terms of key implementation outcomes (e.g. acceptance, feasibility, effectiveness). Within the research group, we will collaborate with the WP Living Systematic Reviews to summarise the ECAP evidence for parents and with WP Health Professionals to jointly develop approaches for access to study participants and the didactic features of the ECAP information.