Impact of home visits on toddlers and infants of low income families

Welcome to the EBN podcast. Dr Roberta Heale, Associate Editor, will explore a recent commentary in EBN on Child Health with the commentary author. The discussion is designed to help you think about issues raised in the commentary and to explore implications of this study related to practice. In this podcast, Dr Kenneth A. Dodge, from Duke University in the USA and Dr Heale will discuss the findings of a study that focused on the long term effects of home visits by nurses and paraprofessionals on infants and toddlers of low income families. Dr Dodge reflects on the study and critically explores the findings, offering his thoughts on the implications for modifications of home visit programs as well as future research. Read the articles: Nurse home visits for infants and toddlers of low income families improve behavioural, language and attention outcomes at age 6 to 9 years; paraprofessional visits improve visual attention and task switching http://goo.gl/PrjbEp.

Original research article: Olds DL, Holmberg JR, Donelan-McCall N, et al. Effects of home visits by paraprofessionals and by nurses on children: follow-up of a randomized trial at ages 6 and 9 years. JAMA Pediatr 2014;168:114-21.