Effectiveness of an intervention for the cross-sectoral care of families with psychosocial burden: a controlled trial

Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the PATH intervention, promoting cross-sectoral collaboration between paediatricians and child and youth welfare services for families with psychosocial burden with young children. We hypothesised PATH would increase the proportion of families who, up to 6 months after study enrolment, used supportive services, were informed about them and were motivated by their paediatrician to use them. Methods We evaluated PATH in a quasi-experimental, controlled longitudinal study. The intervention group (IG) comprised families whose outpatient paediatricians had taken part in the PATH intervention (n = 13), whereas those in the control group (CG) (n = 14) had not. Data were collected via online questionnaires at 3 measurement points: within 7 days after a preventive medical check-up (t1), 6 weeks (t2), and 6 months later (t3). Analyses used multilevel binary logistic regression analyses with propensity score adjustment. Results The analysed sample included 103 families (IG: n = 46; CG: n = 57) with psychosocial burden. The IG differed from the CG by 18 percentage points (pps) in the use of supportive services (p = 0.077), by 24 pps in having been informed (p = 0.027), and by 14 pps in having been motivated (p = 0.246) to use supportive services. The effects were small to medium and not statistically significant, except for the outcome “being informed about supportive services”. Conclusions Our study did not provide statistically significant evidence for the effectiveness of PATH regarding the use of supportive services. However, we found differences between IG and CG for all outcomes in the expected direction. Trial registration This study was registered in the German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS): DRKS00023461 (date of registration in DRKS: 3 December 2020). The WHO UTN (Universal Trial Number) is U1111-260–6575.