Terms of Consent

SmartParent is a parenting education program that texts evidence-based messages to guide parents through the first year of their infant's life. Messages are tailored to the infant's age and include links to online and local resources for infant health and development.

If you sign up for the SmartParent program, you will be asked to complete two surveys—one at enrollment and a follow-up survey near your child's first birthday. You will also be asked to provide your child's personal health number (PHN). Your enrollment in the SmartParent program does not require completing the surveys or providing your child's PHN—participation is completely voluntary. You can choose to answer some or none of the survey questions.

The information you are asked for in the surveys is used as part of a research study to learn about who signs up for SmartParent and will be used to improve the content, design and delivery of the program. This study is being conducted by academic researchers from the University of British Columbia in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, and Provincial Health Authorities. The study has been approved by the Ethics Committees at the Fraser Health Authority, Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and the University of British Columbia. You are being invited to take part in this study because you are a parent of an infant aged 0-1 years old and living in Canada. We have not identified any risks associated with taking part in the surveys. You may learn more about your child's health and through the first year of life, including what you can do to promote healthy development.

Your survey answers may help us learn how to better reach out to parents to inform them about the program and help us to improve the program. Your confidentiality is respected at all times: no information that discloses your identity will be published. Answers to survey questions will be reported in aggregate—that is, results will be reported for groups and not for individuals. Your child's PHN would allow us to look at infant health outcomes in an anonymous fashion, such as number of emergency department visits, non-routine visits to primary care providers and reasons for visits to assess whether parents and their children have benefitted from the SmartParent program. Study staff and investigators will not see your child's PHN and will not be able to link it to any information about your child's health outcomes or your survey answers. The SmartParent website administrator (MEMOTEXT in Toronto, ON) will send your child's PHN in a safe encrypted fashion to Population Data BC (PopData). PopData will use it to send the study team data without the PHN attached. MEMOTEXT will then erase the PHN from their database.

Participant Consent

Your participation in the surveys indicates that you are providing consent and that you are expecting that:

1. Any information you provide in the surveys will be kept confidential.
2. Only study staff, investigators, and website administrators (MEMOTEXT) will have access to your survey answers. Answers provided to study investigators for analysis by MEMOTEXT will not be linked to your name, phone number or child's personal health number (PHN). This means that study staff will not be able to see or link your personal identifying information to you or your answers.

By signing up for SmartParent you:

1. Agree and consent to receive text messages from SmartParent.
2. Acknowledge the right to discontinue your enrollment in SmartParent and/or the study surveys at any time without giving a reason and without any negative impact on you. You can discontinue receiving text messages from SmartParent by texting "STOP" to the sender (12424).
3. Accept that SmartParent will not provide you with any personalized medical advice with regard to your individual or your child's circumstances and/or your or your child's medical condition.
4. Accept that, although SmartParent will not charge you to sign up or to receive the text messages, standard message and data rates may apply. This means that you may be charged by your mobile phone service provider (e.g. Bell, Rogers, Telus, etc.) for receiving/sending SmartParent text messages and/or browsing links included in the text messages, depending on the type of phone plan you are currently on.
5. Confirm that you have had the opportunity to ask questions and have had your questions answered to your satisfaction.

Contact Information

If you have any questions, or desire further information about this study or the SmartParent program before or after your participation, you can contact the Co-Principal Investigator, Dr. Patricia Janssen, at 604-827-4026 or Dr. Wendy Hall at 604-822-7447. You can also contact the Research Manager, at 604-875-2314, toll-free at 1-855-871-BABY (2229) or by email at contact@smartparentcanada.ca. If you have any concerns about your rights as a research subject and/or your experiences while participating in this study, contact the Research Subject Information Line at the University of British Columbia Office of Research Services by e-mail at RSIL@ors.ubc.ca or by phone at 604-822-8598 (toll-free: 1-877-822-8598).

Study Team

Funding

This study and the development of SmartParent are funded by the BC Children's Hospital Research Institute, the UBC Hampton Research Endowment Fund, and the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies.