Effectiveness of public health nurse home visits to primarous mothers and their infants.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of public health nurse postpartum home visits by comparing the health outcomes of 67 randomly selected mother-infant pairs who had received such services with 43 randomly selected mother-infant pairs who had not received them. Health outcome variables were mother's health and health services utilization, infant's health and health services utilization, and mother's parenting practices. Data were collected from birth certificates, health service records, and by home interviews and observations at six months postpartum. No significant differences were noted between home-visited and not-home-visited mother-infant pairs for the majority of health outcome variables. Major, differential health assets and liabilities between groups of Black and White mother-infant pairs were observed.