The purpose of this study is to investigate the efficacy of a home-based intervention program by public health nurses (PHNs) on Hispanic low socioeconomic background very low-birth-weight (VLBW) infants. The home- based intervention program will consist of support and education of parents after the discharge of their infant from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The intervention is expected to have a positive effect on both maternal and infant outcomes. The study will also aim at understanding the mediators that assist or hinder Hispanic families from benefiting from the intervention. To accomplish the overall goal of this project, two PHNs will be trained to support parents, to assess infant development, and to empower parents in the care of their premature infants. The PHNs will be assigned to two groups of experimental infants, 40 infants in each group. One group will receive home visits by PHNs for 12 months, while the second group will receive home visits for the first four months only. A third (control) group of 40 infants will not receive any routine home care by the trained PHNs. Since babies of low-income parents continue to have high mortality and morbidity rates due to various factors including lack of parental skills and inadequate resources, it is expected that the support given to parents by trained PHNs will be beneficial to both parents and infants. The effectiveness of home visitation will be tested by assessing parents and infants on several dependent measures over the 30-month period or until the infants are 2 1/2 years old. Maternal outcome measures will include maternal adaptation, confidence, parent- infant interaction, and the home environment; while infant measures will include Bayley mental and motor scores and health status.
| Badr Zahr, L K (2001) Quantitative and qualitative predictors of development for low-birth weight infants of Latino background. Appl Nurs Res 14:125-35 |
