Nurse Home Visitation Program Research Articles

Screening children for family violence: a review of the evidence for the US Preventive Services Task Force.

We wanted to evaluate the benefits and harms of screening children in primary health care settings for abuse and neglect resulting from family violence by examining the evidence on the performance of screening instruments and the effectiveness of interventions. We searched for relevant studies in MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, ERIC, Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, and reference lists. English language abstracts with original data about family violence against children focusing on screening and interventions initiated or based in health care settings were included. We extracted selected information about study design, patient populations and settings, methods of assessment or intervention, and outcome measures, and applied a set of criteria to evaluate study quality. All instruments designed to screen for child abuse and neglect were directed to parents, particularly pregnant women. These instruments had fairly high sensitivity but low specificity when administered in high-risk study populations and have not been widely tested in other populations. Randomized controlled trials of frequent nurse home visitation programs beginning during pregnancy that address behavioral and psychological factors indicated improved abuse measures and outcomes. No studies were identified about interventions in older children or harms associated with screening and intervention. No trials of the effectiveness of screening in a health care setting have been published. Clinician referrals to nurse home visitation during pregnancy and in early childhood may reduce abuse in selected populations. There are no studies about harms of screening and interventions.

Testing the relationship between self-agency and enactment of health behaviors.

A theoretical review provides a rationale for examining self-agency as a developmental foundation underlying processes of self-regulated change and a potential moderator of intervention effectiveness among participants in a nurse home-visitation program. Self-agency is defined as the conceptual understanding of self as an agent capable of shaping motives, behavior, and future possibilities (Damon & Hart, 1991). Availability of a sample of 186 mothers who received nurse home visitation provided an opportunity to test the relationship between participant self-agency and enactment of targeted health behaviors. Self-agency items from the Pearlin Mastery Scale (1978) were used to differentiate mothers who endorsed self-agency from those who did not. Consistent with the theoretical premise, mothers who endorsed self-agency at an established threshold were significantly more likely to enact health behaviors promoted during nurse visitation. Results provide support for the relationship between the development of self-agency and enactment of health behaviors targeted by a nurse home-visitation program.

Child maltreatment and the early onset of problem behaviors: Can a program of nurse home visitation break the link?

This study investigated the relationship between child maltreatment and the early onset of problem behaviors in the Elmira Nurse Home Visitation Program. Participants were predominantly low-income and unmarried mothers and their first-born children who were randomized either to receive over 2 years of home-visitation services by nurses or to be placed in a comparison group. Data were drawn from a follow-up study that took place when the children were 15 years of age. Results demonstrated that, in the comparison group. child maltreatment was associated with significant increases in the number of early onset problem behaviors reported by the youth. For the youth in the nurse-visited group there was no relationship between maltreatment and early onset problem behaviors. We suggest that this finding was due to the effects of the intervention in reducing the number as well as the developmental timing of the maltreatment incidents. Results suggest that prenatal and infancy home visiting by nurses can moderate the risk of child maltreatment as a predictor of conduct problems and antisocial behavior among children and youth born into at-risk families.

Advocating for children's health at the state level: lessons learned.

This article documents the successful creation and promotion of a bill to fund a nurse home visitation program for high-risk mothers in Arkansas. It illustrates several key factors in successful advocacy by pediatricians working in an academic setting: a realistic time commitment; a community needs assessment, data assimilation, and review of existing resources; the identification and incorporation of stakeholders; a narrow focus on the area of greatest need; the backing of political partners; and favorable opportunities to advance child health issues.

Prenatal and Infancy Home Visitation by Nurses: Recent Findings

This article describes a 20-year program of research on the Nurse Home Visitation Program, a model in which nurses visit mothers beginning during pregnancy and continuing through their children's second birthdays to improve pregnancy outcomes, to promote children's health and development, and to strengthen families' economic self-sufficiency. The results of two randomized trials (one in Elmira, New York, and the second in Memphis, Tennessee) are summarized, and an ongoing trial in Denver, Colorado, is briefly described. Results of the Elmira and Memphis trials suggest the following: The program benefits the neediest families (low-income unmarried women) but provides little benefit for the broader population. Among low-income unmarried women, the program helps reduce rates of childhood injuries and ingestions that may be associated with child abuse and neglect, and helps mothers defer subsequent pregnancies and move into the workforce. Long-term follow-up of families in Elmira indicates that nurse-visited mothers were less likely to abuse or neglect their children or to have rapid successive pregnancies. Having fewer children enabled women to find work, become economically self-sufficient, and eventually avoid substance abuse and criminal behavior. Their children benefitted too. By the time the children were 15 years of age, they had had fewer arrests and convictions, smoked and drank less, and had had fewer sexual partners. The program produced few effects on children's development or on birth outcomes, except for children born to women who smoked cigarettes when they registered during pregnancy. The positive effects of the program on child abuse and injuries to children were most pronounced among mothers who, at registration, had the lowest psychological resources (defined as high levels of mental health symptoms, limited intellectual functioning, and little belief in their control of their lives). Generally, effects in Elmira were of greater magnitude and covered a broader range of outcomes than in Memphis, perhaps because of differences between the populations studied, community contexts, or a higher rate of turnover among home visitors in Memphis than in Elmira. The article concludes that the use of nurses as home visitors is key; that services should be targeted to the neediest populations, rather than being offered on a universal basis; that clinically tested methods of changing health and behavioral risks should be incorporated into program protocols; and that services must be implemented with fidelity to the model tested if program benefits found in scientifically controlled studies are to be reproduced as the program is replicated in new communities.

Community collaboration. The nursing administrator's role in implementing a child abuse prevention program.

The increasing incidence of child abuse is a national disaster. One proposed intervention is prevention through a public health nurse home visitation program developed and extensively researched by David Olds. Selected components of the conceptual model of community collaboration developed by Polivka are applied to the implementation process. The role of the public health nursing administrator in collaboration, human resource management, and delegation is discussed.

Family context as a moderator of program effects in prenatal and early childhood home visitation

Typically research addressing minority family issues focuses on broad cultural differences between majority and minority families, and ignores or minimizes the diversity among families in the minority population. In this article, we address this diversity, specifically the influence of household configuration on the quality of the caregiving environment, and the ability of a nurse home-visitation program for first-time mothers and their infants to affect changes in the environment. Mothers who live with husbands or boyfriends have the best care-giving environments, and mothers who live alone make the greatest improvements. These results are discussed in the context of the nature of the relationship the home visitor is able to establish with key members of the household. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.