Pennsylvania Abusive Head Trauma Prevention Program

Upon the birth of the child, all parents (mothers, and whenever possible, fathers or father figures) will be asked to read written materials and view an 8-minute video on the dangers of violent infant shaking. Parents will be asked to voluntarily sign a commitment statement affirming their receipt and understanding of the materials; these commitment statements will be sent to the Principal Investigator. A random subset of parent participants will be asked to voluntarily answer a short questionnaire about their impressions of the materials. In addition, 31 counties in central Pennsylvania will be randomly divided into two groups. In 15 counties, the hospital-based intervention will remain as described above. In the other 16 counties, all primary care providers having offices in those counties will be asked to provide all parents of newborns at the 2-, 4-, and 6-month immunization visits another set of written materials about violent infant shaking and voluntarily sign a response form that they read and understood the materials. Participating parents in this group will also be asked if they would be willing to complete a short telephone survey when the infant is 7 months old (and if so, asked to provide a telephone number). The telephone survey asks questions about the intervention materials and parents' perception of the information, and seeks to determine the mediators of a program effect. An invitation letter will be sent to a control group of parents who do not receive the office-based intervention to ask if they would be willing to complete the short telephone survey when their infant is 7 months old.