Introduction
Family Connects (FC) is a postnatal nurse home visiting program that has scale-up
potential because it is brief, inexpensive, and universal. Three investigations have
linked Family Connects to improved maternal and family outcomes, but no independent
impact studies have been conducted to date.
Methods
This study investigates a FC program in Racine County, WI that was implemented by
a multimunicipal health department in partnership with a local hospital. The sampling
frame included all women who gave birth at the hospital from July 1, 2018 to August
31, 2019 (N=1,511). A quasinatural experiment resulted from systematically restricting
FC recruitment to weekdays. All eligible women whose birth records and addresses were
obtained from a vital records office were mailed a 6-month postpartum survey. Data
collected from 489 respondents (32.4%) were analyzed in February 2022 to estimate
the impact of FC on maternal health, infant health and development, and parenting
behavior outcomes under intent-to-treat and per protocol assumptions.
Results
No significant differences were observed between study groups at baseline. Despite
evidence that the FC program in Racine met many model standards for implementation
fidelity, null effects were observed at 6 months after delivery for most outcomes.
Results suggested that parents from eligible households reported more frequent infant
emergency medical episodes than parents who were not offered the program.
Conclusions
This study found few significant effects associated with FC participation. Further
investigation is needed to identify the populations with and conditions under which
the program produces its intended effects.
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: June 30, 2022
Publication stage
In Press Journal Pre-ProofIdentification
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© 2022 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
