Abstract

Almost all parents seek online child-related information. This study focuses on parents' experience of using information from an easy-to-read parenting website, Naître et Grandir (N&G), specifically parents with low socioeconomic status (SES). SES is correlated with health literacy, a major determinant of child education and health. In January 2019, the Information Assessment Method (IAM) questionnaire was improved and implemented in a smartphone application (IAM + N&Gsmart) to reach more low SES parents. We measured the influence of IAM + N&Gsmart on the frequency with which low SES parents responded to the IAM survey of N&G webpages and the relative proportions of anticipated benefits of the N&G content. We also compared these benefits among fathers and mothers. This was a 4-year prospective time series. For each N&G webpage, parents were invited to complete an IAM questionnaire and report anticipated outcomes. IAM data were collected before (2017–2018) and after (2019–2020) the intervention (IAM + N&Gsmart launch) from Quebec parents of 0–8-year-old children who completed at least one IAM questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were applied. Participants completed 10,362 IAM questionnaires. Low SES participants anticipated more benefits than other participants, and particularly low SES fathers more than low SES mothers. The proportion of responses and reported benefits from low SES participants increased post-intervention. Results suggest that increasing literacy-oriented web content can lead to greater benefits among low SES parents, and that increasing father awareness and father-inclusive content can lead to even greater benefits among low SES fathers. Parent socioeconomic status (SES) and health literacy are linked and together constitute a major determinant of child education and health. Prior studies suggest that low SES mothers can benefit the most from trustworthy easy-to-read information. Results suggest that low SES parents can benefit the most from trustworthy easy-to-read online child-related information (compared to other parents) especially low SES fathers (compared to low SES mothers). Simple evaluation questions located on each web page can help low SES parents provide valuable feedback to web editors for assessing and improving the information.