The Effectiveness of Healthy Start Home Visit Program: Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

Purpose: The study reported the effectiveness of a home visit program for disadvantaged Chinese parents with preschool children, using cluster randomized controlled trial design. Method: Participants included 191 parents and their children from 24 preschools, with 84 dyads (12 preschools) in the intervention group and 107 dyads (12 preschools) in the control group. Outcome measures included parent report and direct assessment of children. Results: Linear mixed-method regression results indicated significant increase in child preschool concepts, decrease in parent-reported parenting stress and child behavior problems, and improvement in parent-reported social support, self-efficacy, child oral health practices, and healthy feeding practices. The parent assistants delivering the home visit programs reported decrease in child behavior problems and parenting stress, and increase in self-efficacy and social support from pretraining to posttraining and completion of home visits. Discussion: The results provided encouraging evidence that the home visit program was effective with Chinese families.