Feasibility of Health Promoting Activity Coaching for Mothers of Children With Disabilities: Pilot Nonrandomized Controlled Trial

Importance: Mothers of children with disabilities experience health disparity. Interventions targeting maternal mental health need to be developed.Objective: To determine the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of the Healthy Mothers Healthy Families-Health Promoting Activities Coaching (HMHF-HPAC) intervention for mothers to improve participation in healthy activities and mental health and to evaluate outcome measures.Design: Nonrandomized controlled pilot feasibility study with one group who received HMHF-HPAC and a control group.Setting: Pediatric occupational therapy service; on site or telehealth. Participants: Twenty-three mothers completed prequestionnaires; of those, 11 mothers participated in the intervention, and 5 did not (7 withdrew).Intervention: Eleven pediatric occupational therapists were trained to deliver six 10-min sessions of HMHF-HPAC to mothers, integrated into their child's therapy session or separately via telehealth.Outcomes and Measures: Mixed-design analysis of variance explored changes in scores on the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 Items and the Health Promoting Activities Scale.Results: The intervention group reported, on average, significant reductions in depressive symptoms and stress symptoms and significant increases in participation in health-promoting activity. No significant main effect of time was found for these variables in the control group.Conclusions and Relevance: The HMHF-HPAC program is a viable occupational therapy coaching intervention that can be embedded in existing services for families of children with disabilities. Future trials that evaluate the effectiveness of the HMHF-HPAC intervention for mothers of children with disabilities are warranted.

Automated summary

Mothers of children with disabilities experience health disparities. The Healthy Mothers Healthy Families-Health Promoting Activities Coaching (HMHF-HPAC) intervention is effective in reducing depressive and stress symptoms and increasing participation in health-promoting activities. This intervention can be embedded in existing services for families of children with disabilities. Further research is needed on the effectiveness of the HMHF-HPAC intervention.