The content and effectiveness of home-based nursing interventions to promote health and well-being in families with small children: a systematic review

Background: Although the use of preventive family nursing interventions in the home is increased, the literature on the content and effectiveness of these interventions remains fragmented. Aim: The aim of this review was to identify and describe the content of preventive family nursing interventions in families' homes and the effectiveness they had on the families' health and well-being. Methods: A systematic review was conducted using searches on the databases CINAHL, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science (2003-2014). Results: Altogether, 2077 articles were identified, and 11 were selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The main types of interventions were discussions and practical exercises to help parents cope with parenthood and relationships and interactions in the family, together with health, well-being, social relations and socio-economic situations. The effectiveness of family interventions was reported in all the selected studies. Conclusions: Greater knowledge of interventions is needed in the future, to develop program content and to explore the validity and reliability of used measurements. In addition, more effort is needed to develop quality appraisal tools for preventive interventions in families' homes.