The effect of VoorZorg, the Dutch nurse-family partnership, on child maltreatment and development: a randomized controlled trial

PLoS One. 2015 Apr 1;10(4):e0120182. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0120182. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Background: Child maltreatment is a great public health concern that has long-term mental and physical health consequences and can result in death. We studied the effect of a nurse home visiting program on child maltreatment among young disadvantaged families in The Netherlands. This study is the first to investigate the effects of this program outside of the United States.

Methods: We conducted a single blind, parallel-group, randomized controlled trial that compared usual care with the nurse home visitation program, which began during pregnancy and continued until the children's second birthdays, in 460 disadvantaged women who were pregnant for the first time and <26 years of age. The primary outcome was the existence of a report about the child from a child protecting services agency (CPS reports). Secondary outcome measures included home environment and child behavior.

Results: Two hundred twenty-three participants were assigned to the control group, and 237 were assigned to the intervention group. Three years after birth, 19% of the children in the control group had a CPS report. The 11 percent of children in the intervention group with CPS files was significantly lower (relative risk 0.91, p-value 0.04). At 24 months, the intervention group scored significantly better on the IT-HOME. At 24 months after birth, the children in the intervention group exhibited a significant improvement in internalizing behavior (relative risk 0.56, p-value 0.04) but no evidence of a difference from the control group in externalizing behavior (relative risk 0.71, p-value 0.12).

Conclusion: The number of CPS reports for the intervention group was significantly lower than that of the control group. Additionally, the long-term home environments were improved and internalizing behaviors of the children were lower in the intervention group.

Trial registration: Dutch Trial Register NTR854.

Publication types

  • Randomized Controlled Trial
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Child
  • Child Abuse*
  • Family*
  • Female
  • Growth and Development*
  • House Calls*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Netherlands
  • Nurses*
  • Outcome Assessment, Health Care*
  • Pregnancy

Associated data

  • NTR/NTR854

Grants and funding

The conduct of the RCT was funded by the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw), which is the funding organization from the Dutch government (http://www.zonmw.nl/nl/), grant numbers: 100001015 and 71300002. Participating Youth Health Care organizations and participating city councils provided funding for the implementation of this study. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.