Family and Child Health Innovations Program (FCHIP) awarded the Kent County Fatherhood Survey (KCFS) Steelcase Foundation Grant

December 29, 2022

The Family and Child Health Innovations Program (FCHIP) at Lurie Children’s will work with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) to develop and field the Kent County Fatherhood Survey (KCFS) during a three-year grant period (10/17/22-10/17/25). To support FHCIP and MDHHS, Steelcase Foundation has awarded $620,203 to Lurie Children’s.

 

“Fathers are often missing in the maternal-child health paradigm. In establishing the Kent County Fatherhood Survey (KCFS), we will create, implement and analyze a public health surveillance survey of fathers and families in Kent County, Michigan that is representative of its population, with particular focus on fathers of children who are Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) or Hispanic,” said Craig Garfield, MD, MAPP, founder and director of the Family & Child Health Innovations Program (FCHIP).  “Once established, data from KCFS will inform multi-generational support, advocacy and engagement for families across Kent County and the nation.”

 

Building on the success of the maternal Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), PRAMS for Dads was first implemented in 2018-2019 in collaboration with the Georgia Department of Public Health and the CDC. The overarching purpose of PRAMS for Dads was to collect comprehensive information about men’s health and experiences during the transition to fatherhood, including links between paternal factors and pregnancy, maternal and infant outcomes.

 

Question domains included relationship status, paternal work leave, residency with baby and mother, health insurance, health care access and utilization, pregnancy intention, paternal involvement and safe sleep practices. 

 

Responses from this groundbreaking survey revealed key actionable health data. For example, about 70 percent of fathers reported being overweight/obesity, 10 percent had depressive symptoms, with a panoply of poor health behaviors, including 19 percent current smokers, 13 percent binge drinking, and 5 percent marijuana users. Further, data could be linked to maternal PRAMS, allowing dyadic analysis between mothers and fathers within the same family.  

 

Three peer-reviewed articles about the PRAMS for Dads pilot study in Georgia have already been published in the American Journal of Public Health, PLOS One, and Archives of Women’s Mental Health:

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6137775/

 

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0262366

 

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00737-022-01254-4

 

Craig Garfield, Director of FCHIP, and Daniel Williams, Steelcase Foundation President, were both selected as Aspen Ascend Fellows class of 2021.

For more information, please contact Craig Garfield at c-garfield@northwestern.edu