Health Education Research Advance Access originally published online on August 14, 2006
Health Education Research 2007 22(2):285-294; doi:10.1093/her/cyl079
Health and safety intervention with first-time mothers
1 Department of Child, Family and Community Sciences, University of Central Florida, PO Box 161250, Orlando, FL 32816-1250, USA
2 College of Education, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816-1250, USA
3 Department of Family and Consumer Resources, Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61761, USA
4 Oklahoma State Department of Health, Oklahoma City, OK 73117, USA
* Correspondence to: A. McDonald Culp. E-mail: aculp{at}mail.ucf.edu
A health education program was evaluated which used child development specialists as home visitors and served a population of first-time mothers living in rural communities. The evaluation compared health and safety outcomes between intervention and control groups. The research staff, separate from the intervention staff, collected data in the homes of 156 intervention and 107 control mothers when the infants were 6 and 12 months old. Significant group differences were found on health and safety outcomes. As compared with controls, the intervention mothers (i) had safer homes; (ii) were more likely to use birth control, thus had fewer pregnancies since birth of their first child; (iii) reported smoking fewer cigarettes; (iv) knew more about effects of smoking on their child's health and (v) were more likely to use health department services. In sum, mothers who received early education home visits from child development specialists experienced positive health and safety outcomes. It is highly recommended that a program such as this be implemented as part of health delivery program with new mothers and infants.
Received on February 16, 2006; accepted on June 23, 2006