Parents’ adherence to pediatric health and safety guidelines: Importance of patient-provider relationships

Abstract Objective To examine 1) parent-provider communication about pediatric health/safety guidelines, 2) trust in child’s provider, 3) comfort discussing guidelines, 4) agreement with guideline advice, 5) self-efficacy following guidelines, and their impact on guideline adherence. Method 256 parents of children ages 0–6 completed an online survey about sunscreen use, newborn Vitamin K injections, influenza vaccination, routine vaccination, car seats, infant safe sleep, furniture anchoring, large trampoline use, and firearm safety. Multivariable models regressed: 1) communication about each guideline on parents’ corresponding guideline adherence; 2) trust, comfort discussing guidelines, agreement with guideline advice, self-efficacy, on parents’ total guideline adherence. Results Communication about furniture anchoring ( OR  = 2.26), sunscreen ( OR  = 5.28), Vitamin K injections ( OR  = 3.20), influenza vaccination ( OR  = 13.71), routine vaccination ( OR  = 6.43), car seats ( OR  = 6.15), and infant safe sleep ( OR  = 3.40) related to corresponding guideline adherence ( p s  OR  = 1.11, n.s. ). Trampoline communication related to lower likelihood of trampoline guideline adherence ( OR  = 0.24, p  = 0.001). Agreement with guideline advice ( β  = 0.35), trust ( β  = 0.34), self-efficacy ( β  = 0.45), comfort discussing guidelines ( β  = 0.35) positively related to total guideline adherence ( p s  Conclusion Findings underscore the importance of provider communication about health/safety guidelines. Practice implications Providers should respectfully engage and build relationships with parents to support health/safety guideline adherence.