THE FINNISH FAMILY COMPETENCE STUDY
Rautava P, Aromaa M, Ojanlatva A and Sillanpää M.
Department of Public Health, and Turku City Hospital, Finland
Background and aims:
The Finnish Family Competence Study is a prospective follow-up study launched in January of 1985. The study is carried out in the (then) Province of Turku and Pori of south-western Finland. The main purposes are to…
1. Develop health education for families in maternity health care clinic and well-baby clinic settings
2. Establish predisposing factors for and evaluate long term consequences of infantile colic
3. Examine children’s dental health within the normal population and factors influencing poor conditions of their teeth
4. Investigate paediatric dental health with long term illnesses
5. Analyse forms of children's headache and their predisposing factors
6. Evaluate quality of children’s preventive health care
7. Follow up health status of 9-year-olds with recurrent infections during the first two years of the children’s lives
8. Establish information on emotional wellbeing and predisposing factors of general school difficulties in the case of 12-year old children
9. Clarify background issues of alcohol use among adolescents
10. Investigate pain behaviours of children and adolescents.
Subjects and methods:
The method is one of the stratified randomised cluster sample procedures. Eleven health authority areas were randomly chosen and they included 67 maternity health care clinics, 72 well-baby clinics, and 101 dental health care clinics within the health authority areas. The study group consisted of all nulliparous women who paid their first visit to the public health nurse at maternity health clinic on their own initiative during 1986. The subjects included married women or women living in a marriage-like relationship and those living without a partner. Of the 1582 women, 1443 (91.2 %) gave their informed consent while 139 (8.8%) refused to participate. The present data have been collected with pre-tested questionnaires over the last 15 years.
The study setting also contains nested case-control studies with several clinical examinations.
Completed doctoral theses:
Rautava, P. Health education in the Finnish maternity health care system. Evaluation of effectiveness. Lääkintöhallituksen julkaisuja. Terveyden edistäminen. Sarja Tutkimukset 13/89. Kirjapaino Grafia, Turku/Valtion Painatuskeskus 1989.
Hyssälä, L. Health behaviour of a young family's father. A study of health behaviour of a young family's father, his transition to fatherhood and his role as a health educator conducted at Maternity Health Care Clinics and Well-Baby Clinics. Sosiaali- ja terveyshallituksen julkaisuja. Tutkimusraportit 18/1992. Valtion Painatuskesus, Helsinki 1992.
Paunio, P. Dental health habits in early childhood. Turun yliopiston julkaisuja . Sarja D. Medica-Odontologica 127. Painosalama Oy, Turku 1993.
Aromaa, M. Headache in families. Turun yliopiston julkaisuja. Sarja D. Medica-Odontologica 330. Painosalama Oy, Turku 1999.
Mattila, M-L. Quality-related outcome of pediatric dental health care. Turun yliopiston julkaisuja. Sarja D. Medica-Odontologica 469. Painosalama Oy, Turku 2001.
Louhi-Pirkanniemi, K. Recurrent therapy with antibiotocs in infancy. Turun yliopiston julaksuja. Sarja D. Medica-Odontologica 632. Painosalama 2004.
On-going doctoral thesis work:
1) Quality of children’s preventive health care (Hannele Kallio,M.D.)
2) Mental health of adolescents (Andre Sourander D.D, Solja Niemelä, M.D.)
3) Emotional wellbeing of 12-year old children (Leena Pihlakoski, M.D.)
4) Prevalence of headache among 12-year-old children (Ruut Virtanen, M.D.)
5) Headache and dental bite of adolescents (Marjo-Riitta Liljeström, D.D.)
6) Dental fear from childhood to adolescence (Sirkka Jaakkola, D.D.)
The Finnish Family Competence Study design offers an excellent possibility to develop preventive health care as well as paediatric care and clinical care of child psychiatry.