By Michelle Rizzo
New York - Intensive home visiting by social workers, child development specialists, or related professionals, is associated with a reduced risk of infant death, according to findings published in the journal Paediatrics.
The goal of prenatal and infant home visits is to "optimise pregnancy outcomes and child development through family education, training, and social support," Dr Edward F Donovan, of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Centre, Ohio, and colleagues write. "Programmes often target mothers and children at greater risk for adverse outcomes."
The researchers compared the risk of death in 1 665 infants whose families were enrolled in Cincinnati's Every Child Succeeds (ECS), a community-based, home-visitation program for first-time mothers and their children. This information was compared with data for 4 995 infants and families who were not in the programme, but were matched to the other group for stage of development at birth, pregnancy loss, maternal marital and age.
The investigator found that the risk of infant death was 2,5 times higher in infants whose families did not receive home visits compared with those whose families did.
"This association was only observed when home visiting began during the pregnancy, not after the birth of the baby," Donovan explained in an interview.
The investigators report that black infants were at least as likely to benefit from the home-visitation programme as were non-black infants. There was no effect of participation in the home-visiting programme on the risk of preterm birth.
"Infant mortality in the US is much higher than in other countries despite large investments in care and prevention," Donovan noted. "This study suggests that we may want to divert some of these resources to intensive home visiting that begins during pregnancy," he suggested.
- Source:
Paediatrics, June 2007