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Early effects of the healthy steps for young children program
C Minkovitz1, D Strobino, N Hughart
1Department of Population and Family Health Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, 624 N Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
|May 1, 2001
Summary
The Healthy Steps for Young Children Program (HS) increased developmental services and parent satisfaction in early infancy. It also promoted safer sleep practices and reduced water feeding, though effects on breastfeeding and other practices varied.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric care
- Child development
- Public health interventions
Background:
- Routine pediatric care can be enhanced with early child development specialists.
- The Healthy Steps for Young Children Program (HS) integrates these specialists into standard care.
- Evaluating HS effectiveness is crucial for optimizing early childhood support.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the impact of the Healthy Steps for Young Children Program (HS) on services received, parent satisfaction, and parent practices.
- To evaluate HS in both randomization and quasi-experimental settings.
- To determine outcomes for infants aged 2 to 4 months.
Main Methods:
- Telephone interviews with mothers from intervention and control groups.
- Large sample sizes: 2631 intervention and 2265 control families.
- Hierarchical linear models to analyze adjusted effects, accounting for site-specific correlations.
Main Results:
- Intervention families received more developmental services and home visits.
- Higher satisfaction reported by intervention families with pediatric care.
- Safer infant sleep practices (prone position) and reduced water feeding in intervention group.
Conclusions:
- The HS program successfully increased developmental services and parent satisfaction in early infancy.
- Future research will examine long-term effects on language development and healthcare utilization.
- The study highlights the potential of integrated developmental services in pediatric settings.