How about the next time you need health information about your child, you head to McDonald’s instead of the pediatrician’s?

Sound like a wacky idea? Maybe. But it became a real option for Seattle parents recently, thanks to a study conducted by researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Washington.

In an effort to reach parents in urban, low-income communities, one touchscreen computer kiosk was placed in the public library, another at a Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) office, and a third at a McDonald’s restaurant (nearly half of all kiosk sessions occurred at McDonald’s). Parents could enter their child’s age and receive age-appropriate prevention information and screening tools. The kiosks included 14 modules, ten of which focused on prevention and safety (e.g., television/media, gun injuries, bicycle injuries, car crashes, tobacco smoke exposure, flu shots, SIDS prevention, house fires, Head Start, and scald burn prevention). Three were screening tools for developmental delay, tuberculosis, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The final module was a symptom assessment for children with asthma.

Findings from the study suggest that this may be a valuable strategy for reaching people in need of health services. Over half of the computer sessions identified at-risk health children. In fact, the vast majority of first-time kiosk users who completed the asthma assessment had children with uncontrolled asthma.

While the kiosks can never (and should never be used to) replace a parents’ interactions with their child’s pediatrician, this may be a helpful strategy for filling a gap in health care. Over a quarter (26 percent) of parents who completed the kiosk’s exit survey reported that they had never used the Internet. Still, over half (57 percent) said that it was easy to use and the information easy to understand (55 percent). More than half (55 percent) also said they would try some of the kiosk’s prevention recommendations and nearly as many (49 percent) said they would talk to their child’s doctor about the information they received.

Faced with self-scan checkouts at the grocery store and automated phone systems, I sometimes think the world is becoming a bit too automated. Still, I search for health information online all the time. Really, the kiosks are just a way of bringing the same information into the hands of those who don’t have Internet access or don’t know how to look for it. Again, I can’t see this replacing a parent’s interactions with their child’s pediatrician, but this could be a good tool for enabling parents to identify a need for a health care visit or to access health information between visits and to do so in spite of other barriers to health care they may face.

More Information:

AHRQ coverage of the study