Long-term effects of prenatal and infancy nurse home visitation on the life course of youths: 19-year follow-up of a randomized trial.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the effect of prenatal and infancy nurse home visitation on the life course development of 19-year-old youths whose mothers participated in the program.


METHODS
Randomized trial.


METHODS
Semirural community in New York.


METHODS
Three hundred ten youths from the 400 families enrolled in the Elmira Nurse-Family Partnership program. Intervention Families received a mean of 9 home visits (range, 0-16) during pregnancy and 23 (range, 0-59) from birth through the child's second birthday.


METHODS
Youth self-reports of educational achievement, reproductive behaviors, welfare use, and criminal involvement.


RESULTS
Relative to the comparison group, girls in the pregnancy and infancy nurse-visited group were less likely to have been arrested (10% vs 30%; relative risk [RR], 0.33; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.13-0.82) and convicted (4% vs 20%; 0.20; 0.05-0.85) and had fewer lifetime arrests (mean: 0.10 vs 0.54; incidence RR [IRR], 0.18; 95% CI, 0.06-0.54) and convictions (0.04 vs 0.37; 0.11; 0.02-0.51). Nurse-visited girls born to unmarried and low-income mothers had fewer children (11% vs 30%; RR, 0.35; 95% CI, 0.12-1.02) and less Medicaid use (18% vs 45%; 0.40; 0.18-0.87) than their comparison group counterparts.


CONCLUSIONS
Prenatal and infancy home visitation reduced the proportion of girls entering the criminal justice system. For girls born to high-risk mothers, there were additional positive program effects consistent with results from earlier phases of this trial. There were few program effects for boys.
Eckenrode
John
J
Family Life Development Center, Cornell University, Beebe Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. jje1@cornell.edu
Campa
Mary
M
Luckey
Dennis W
DW
Henderson
Charles R
CR
Cole
Robert
R
Kitzman
Harriet
H
Anson
Elizabeth
E
Sidora-Arcoleo
Kimberly
K
Powers
Jane
J
Olds
David
D
D000328:Adult; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000517:prevention & control; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002669:Child Welfare; D003152:Community Health Nursing; D003415:Crime / Q000517:prevention & control; D004522:Educational Status; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006699:Home Care Services; D006792:House Calls; D006801:Humans; D035846:Law Enforcement; D008297:Male; D016389:Maternal-Child Nursing; D009518:New York; D011247:Pregnancy; D011295:Prenatal Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D015397:Program Evaluation