Visiting Nurse Program Linked to Reduced Child Behavioral Problems

Background: As the overall burden of psychiatric illness grows, there have been increasing efforts to implement interventions that may prevent the onset of emotional–behavioral problems. Objective: To test the effectiveness of a visiting nurse program for mothers of young children. Design: Randomized controlled trial. Methods: Data for this study were drawn from the Healthy Connections Project in British Columbia, Canada. A total of 739 first-time mothers with socioeconomic disadvantage were recruited from 26 public health settings. Participants were randomized to receive either services as usual or the Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) intervention, which involved nurses making up to 64.0 visits (average, 41.3) during the prenatal and postpartum periods to improve maternal health, parenting, and economic security. Outcomes included language, cognitive, and mental health ratings (as measured by the externalizing score of the Child-Behavior Checklist) when children were aged 2 year more...