Clinical trial NCT05511961: A Randomised Controlled Trial of Healthier Wealthier Families in Sweden
Official title: Ameliorating Child Poverty Through Connecting Economic Services With Child Health Services (ACCESS): A Randomised Controlled Trial of the Healthier Wealthier Families Model in Sweden
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: RECRUITING
Phase: NA
Conditions: Material and Social Deprivation: An Enforced Lack of Necessary and Desirable Items to Lead an Adequate Life
Keywords: Child poverty, Economic services, Child health services
Healthier Wealthier Families, Sweden
Lead sponsor: Uppsala University
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2022-08-23
Enrollment: 142
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: A two-arm randomised waitlist-control superiority trial (1:1 allocation ratio) will be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the HWF model in improving the financial situation of families who have self-reported economic difficulties. The intervention arm will be referred to budget and debt counselling immediately after randomisation and the waitlist-control arm around 3 months later. Both arms will be offered a financial guidance book at randomisation. Randomised controlled trial (RCT) assessments will take place at two points: pre-intervention (T1) and post-intervention (T2; around 3 months after randomisation). Longitudinal cohort assessment (both arms) will take place around 12 months after randomisation.
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: Healthier Wealthier Families is a way of working, where child health nurses ask parents about their financial situation and connect them to a free financial help service, if needed. To test whether it helps families, the investigators will randomly select half of the families who want to take part to go to the service straight away and half around 3 months later. Both groups of parents will receive a book about parenting and finances straight away. The investigators will compare how the groups of parents answer on survey questions about meeting the costs of their children's needs, their financial knowledge, financial control, readiness to change, success on personal finance goals, mental health and financial stigma. The investigators predict that the parents who are offered the financial help service straight away will answer more positively on the survey questions. The investigators will ask all parents the survey questions again around 12 months later to see how they are doing.

Detailed description: The Healthier Wealthier Families (HWF) model implements universal screening for economic hardship into child health services and creates a referral pathway to economic support services. To test this, the investigators will conduct a randomised control trial. A longitudinal follow-up with the cohort will explore whether any effects are maintained in the longer-term. The study hypotheses are that families who have received municipal budget and debt counselling services via the HWF model will report a lower rate of child material and social deprivation. Also, that the intervention arm will report greater financial knowledge, financial control, readiness for change, attainment of personal goals to improve one's financial situation, parental mental health and less financial stigma than the waitlist-control arm

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Parent / caregiver of at least one child aged 0-5 years
* The family is listed at the participating child health care centre
* Parent / caregiver reports at least one risk factor for economic hardship on specified screening questions
* Parent / caregiver lives within the geographical areas served by the participating financial counselling service
* Parent / caregiver has given informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

* Parent / caregiver does not understand the recruitment invitation.
* Parent / caregiver is already an active user of a financial counselling service.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Child material and social deprivation (MSD)
timeFrame: 3 months after randomisation
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Household income and sources of income
timeFrame: 3 months after randomisation
measure: Financial knowledge
timeFrame: 3 months after randomisation
measure: Financial control
timeFrame: 3 months after randomisation
measure: Readiness for change
timeFrame: 3 months after randomisation
measure: Personal goal
timeFrame: 3 months after randomisation
measure: Parental mental health
timeFrame: 3 months after randomisation
measure: Perceived financial stigma
timeFrame: 3 months after randomisation
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Uppsala
country: Sweden
facility: Uppsala University
state: Uppland
Study officials:
affiliation: Uppsala University
name: Anna Sarkadi, Prof
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: