Child health

In brief

Overview

Due to the significant influence of child health on other developmental outcomes, some of the early childhood home visiting models in the HomVEE review address the promotion of child health in some way. Models that begin during a mother’s pregnancy aim to improve birth outcomes by linking mothers to prenatal health care and providing them with information about fetal development. Following the birth of the child, programs ensure that children have access to health care, receive appropriate well-child care and immunizations, and receive appropriate medical care for illnesses and injuries. Some programs also provide information to parents about ways to support physical health, such as the importance of nutritious meals and physical activity.

Measurement considerations

Measures of a child’s growth, physical health, and use of health services (such as immunizations) are all included in this domain. Outcome measures in this domain are birth outcomes and counts of health care service use, which are extracted from medical records. Other outcome measures in this domain are based on parent reports about children’s health and use of health care services. For some outcomes the direction of the effect is not clearly favorable or unfavorable and instead it is ambiguous. For example, the direction of the effect on the number of days hospitalized is ambiguous because it is not necessarily due to poorer health: more time in the hospital may be due to increased access to health care. In other words, families’ participation in the home visiting program may have increased the likelihood that they would receive needed health care services, and therefore more days hospitalized may not be an unfavorable outcome.

Most diet and feeding measures belong in this domain. Measures of how often the child eats certain foods and whether the type of food and/or frequency of intake are appropriate belong is this domain. HomVEE’s domain categorization of other food intake measures depends on the types of foods included, how they are measured, and the age of the child. For example, HomVEE categorizes higher frequency intake of foods such as sugars, fats, and sweets as unfavorable. For other types of foods, HomVEE generally categorizes higher frequency intake as ambiguous, unless measures are designed to align with published food and nutrition guidelines. Outcomes related to the parent’s responsive feeding practices do not belong in this domain but instead belong in the positive parenting practices domain because they measure a parent’s attitudes and interactions with their child. Another diet-related outcome, the Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale, belongs in the positive parenting practices domain instead because it measures the parent’s attitudes.

Child mental and behavioral health do not belong in this domain. HomVEE categorizes measures of children’s mental and behavioral health in the child development and school readiness domain, in contrast to the measures of physical health that are reported in the child health domain.

Medical attention outcomes generally fall into this domain. HomVEE categorizes measures of how often the child has been taken to the doctor or a hospital/clinic for a medical issue, and measures of whether the child received medical attention due to specific health issues (such as an infection or asthma), in this domain, and categorizes the direction of statistically significant impacts on such measures as ambiguous. That is because seeking more medical attention could be reflecting poorer health outcomes (unfavorable) but at the same time it could reflect increased access to health care and attention to medical health conditions (favorable). However, health care encounters due to injuries and ingestions do not belong in this domain. Most health care encounters for children belong in the child health domain. However, health care encounters that may occur specifically as a result of child maltreatment, such as treatment for injuries or ingestions, are placed in the reductions in child maltreatment domain.

Health insurance coverage does not belong in this domain. HomVEE places access to health insurance, for both the child and mother, in the family economic self-sufficiency domain.

Summary of findings

The effects shown in the research are grouped into four categories: (1) favorable, (2) no effect, (3) unfavorable or ambiguous, and (4) not measured. Results for models that only have low-rated research are listed as “not applicable.” For more information on these categories please read the procedures and standards handbook. Only results from manuscripts that receive a moderate or high rating are considered below. This table includes manuscripts links to more information on the model’s effectiveness, implementation, and details on findings in this domain.

Effects shown in research — Child health domain

Displaying 1 - 68 of 68
Model Meets HHS criteria Findings For more information

Arizona Health Start Program

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not applicable
For more information

Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-Up (ABC) -Infant

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Favorable: 1
No effect: 0
Unfavorable or ambiguous: 0
For more information

Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-Up (ABC) -Toddler

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not measured
For more information

Child First

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Not measured
For more information

Child Parent Enrichment Project (CPEP)

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Favorable: 0
No effect: 4
Unfavorable or ambiguous: 0
For more information

Childhood Asthma Prevention Study (CAPS)

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Favorable: 0
No effect: 4
Unfavorable or ambiguous: 0
For more information

Computer-Assisted Motivational Intervention (CAMI)

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not measured
For more information

CAMI+

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not measured
For more information

IMH-HB EHS

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not measured
For more information

Early Head Start—Home-based option

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Favorable: 0
No effect: 14
Unfavorable or ambiguous: 0
For more information

Early Intervention Program for Adolescent Mothers

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Favorable: 8
No effect: 10
Unfavorable or ambiguous: 0
For more information

Early Start (New Zealand)

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Favorable: 3
No effect: 4
Unfavorable or ambiguous: 0
For more information

Early Steps to School Success™—Home Visiting

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not applicable
For more information

Even Start-Home Visiting (Birth to Age 5)

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not applicable
For more information

Family Check-Up® For Children

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Not measured
For more information

Family Connections (Birth to Age 5)

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not applicable
For more information

Family Connects

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Favorable: 11
No effect: 11
Unfavorable or ambiguous: 0
For more information

Family Spirit®

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Not measured
For more information

First Born® Program

Findings
Not measured
For more information

Following Baby Back Home (FBBH)

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not applicable
For more information

Health Access Nurturing Development Services (HANDS) Program

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Favorable: 6
No effect: 3
Unfavorable or ambiguous: 0
For more information

HealthConnect One's® Community-Based Doula Program

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not applicable
For more information

Healthy Beginnings

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Favorable: 14
No effect: 10
Unfavorable or ambiguous: 0
For more information

Healthy Families America (HFA)®

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Favorable: 7
No effect: 48
Unfavorable or ambiguous: 1
For more information

Healthy Steps (National Evaluation 1996 Protocol)

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Favorable: 3
No effect: 4
Unfavorable or ambiguous: 0
For more information

Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY)®

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Not measured
For more information

Home-Start

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not applicable
For more information

HOMEBUILDERS (Birth to Age 5)®

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not applicable
For more information

Intervention Nurses Start Infants Growing on Healthy Trajectories (INSIGHT)

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Favorable: 6
No effect: 19
Unfavorable or ambiguous: 7
For more information

Maternal Early Childhood Sustained Home-Visiting Program (MECSH)

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Favorable: 2
No effect: 13
Unfavorable or ambiguous: 1
For more information

Maternal Infant Health Outreach Worker (MIHOW)®

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Favorable: 4
No effect: 18
Unfavorable or ambiguous: 2
For more information

Maternal Infant Health Program (MIHP)

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Favorable: 7
No effect: 0
Unfavorable or ambiguous: 0
For more information

Minding the Baby® Home Visiting (MTB-HV)

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Favorable: 1
No effect: 1
Unfavorable or ambiguous: 0
For more information

MOM Program

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not measured
For more information

Mothers’ Advocates in the Community (MOSAIC)

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not applicable
For more information

New Forest Parenting Programme (NFPP)

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not applicable
For more information

North Carolina Baby Love Maternal Outreach Workers Program

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not applicable
For more information

Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP)®

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Favorable: 6
No effect: 39
Unfavorable or ambiguous: 2
For more information

Nurses for Newborns®

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not applicable
For more information

Nurturing Parenting Programs (Birth to Age 5)

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not applicable
For more information

Oklahoma’s Community-Based Family Resource and Support (CBFRS) Program

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Favorable: 0
No effect: 3
Unfavorable or ambiguous: 0
For more information

Parent-Child Assistance Program (PCAP)

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not applicable
For more information

ParentChild+® Core Model

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not measured
For more information

Parents as Teachers (PAT)®

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Favorable: 0
No effect: 13
Unfavorable or ambiguous: 0
For more information

Baby FACE, an adaptation of PAT®

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not measured
For more information

Parents as First Teachers (New Zealand)

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Favorable: 0
No effect: 10
Unfavorable or ambiguous: 0
For more information

Philani Outreach Programme

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not applicable
For more information

Play and Learning Strategies (PALS) Infant

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Not measured
For more information

PALS Infant + Toddler/Preschooler

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not measured
For more information

PALS Toddler/Preschooler

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not measured
For more information

Preparing for Life—Home Visiting

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Favorable: 13
No effect: 90
Unfavorable or ambiguous: 5
For more information

Pride in Parenting (PIP)

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not applicable
For more information

Promoting First Relationships®—Home Visiting Intervention Model

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Not measured
For more information

Promoting First Relationships®—Home Visiting Promotion Model

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not applicable
For more information

Promoting Parental Skills and Enhancing Attachment in Early Childhood (CAPEDP) Trial

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not measured
For more information

Resource Mothers Program

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not applicable
For more information

Resources, Education, and Care in the Home (REACH)

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Favorable: 1
No effect: 3
Unfavorable or ambiguous: 0
For more information

REST Routine

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not measured
For more information

SafeCare®

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not applicable
For more information

Australian Adaptation of UCLA Parent-Child Health and Wellness Project

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not measured
For more information

SafeCare Augmented

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Not measured
For more information

Seattle-King County Healthy Homes Project

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not applicable
For more information

Triple P - Positive Parenting Program®—Variants suitable for home visiting

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not applicable
For more information

Triple P - Home Visiting: Standard Stepping Stones

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not measured
For more information

British Autism Study of Infant Siblings (iBASIS-VIPP)

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not measured
For more information

Video-Feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting-Sensitive Discipline® (VIPP-SD)

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Not measured
For more information

Video-Feedback Intervention to Promote Positive Parenting adapted to Autism (VIPP-AUTI)

Meets HHS criteria?
No
Findings
Not measured
For more information

Video-Feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting (VIPP)

Meets HHS criteria?
Yes
Findings
Not measured
For more information