Objectives: To delineate specific family needs during the postpartum period using data from Family Connects (FC), a universal home-visiting initiative, and to scrutinize potential racial and ethnic disparities in these needs.
Method: FC implementation data spanned from July 1, 2009, to August 31, 2021, in seven counties across the USA. Data encompassed nurse-led in-home assessments for 34,119 families. Nurses evaluated needs across four domains (healthcare, parenting/childcare, safe home, and parent support) comprising 12 risk factors.
Findings: Overall, families reported high levels of need, and community connections were facilitated for 57% of visited families. Significant differences in need profiles between whites and minority groups were revealed, reflecting both disparity and uniqueness. Employing the Oaxaca decomposition approach, we found that racial/ethnic disparities in socioeconomic attributes were associated with racial/ethnic gaps in the need profiles.
Conclusions: The event of giving birth is both high risk and high opportunity for preventive intervention. Home-visiting programs, as an evidence-based approach, must address the diverse spectrum of familial needs comprehensively.
Keywords: Family Connects; Home visiting; Infant; Oaxaca decomposition approach; Racial/ethnic disparity.
© 2024. W. Montague Cobb-NMA Health Institute.