Reaching an underserved population with a randomly assigned home safety intervention.

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Maternal and Child Health
• Health Disparities

Background:

• Underserved, monolingual Spanish-speaking populations face significant health disparities, particularly in child injury prevention.
• Mobile and migrant families are often difficult to reach with traditional health interventions.
• Maternal self-efficacy is a key factor in implementing home safety practices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the effectiveness of a culturally appropriate intervention to improve maternal self-efficacy for home safety behaviors.
• To reach and engage a mobile, underserved, monolingual Spanish-speaking population.
• To reduce controllable safety hazards in the homes of young children.

Main Methods:

• A pre- and post-test experimental design was used with 82 mothers of 1-4 year old children in a non-urban Texas setting.
• Participants were randomly assigned to an intervention or control group.
• The intervention included culturally tailored counseling, assessment of safety practices, and provision of safety items during home visits.

Main Results:

• The intervention group showed significantly improved self-efficacy for home safety behaviors (p=0.01).
• Mothers with higher self-efficacy and fewer perceived barriers had fewer accessible home hazards.
• A high retention rate (95%) indicates receptiveness to culturally appropriate home visits in this population.

Conclusions:

• Culturally tailored home visits, including safety items, are effective for improving maternal self-efficacy and reducing home hazards in hard-to-reach populations.
• This study highlights the importance of culturally sensitive research design for monolingual populations with limited residency.
• Addressing injuries is crucial for reducing health disparities in neglected communities.