Evaluation of the Postpartum/Newborn Home Visit (PPNBHV) service: Aiken County, South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control

Objective: Home visiting enjoys widespread endorsement as a strategy for promoting child health and development. An evaluation of the infant component of the South Carolina PPNBHV service was conducted to determine the level of program fidelity and impact. Methodology: Data was manually extracted from the health records of 176 randomly selected infants who were born and enrolled in the Women, Infants, and Children's (WIC) program in 2004. The processes reviewed include timeliness of home visits and appropriateness of revisits. The impact measures studied include age at enrollment in the WIC program and immunization status at six/nine months. Chi-square tests were used to check for associations between home visit status and each of these impact measures. A multivariable logistic regression was used to identify the relationship between home visit status and age at enrollment in the WIC program. Results: Of the 176 infants, 76 (43%) received a home visit. Of these, 13 (17%) received the home visit within 72 hours after discharge. After controlling for several variables including race/ethnicity and birth weight category, the infants who received a home visit had a four times greater odds of enrolling early in the WIC program than infants who did not receive a home visit (AOR: 4.0; 95% C.I. 1.92 – 8.36). Conclusion: The PPNBHV service may contribute to early enrollment in the WIC program. Improvement in the timeliness of the visits is needed. Public Health Implications: Periodic program monitoring is necessary to ensure program fidelity, determine impact, and provide feedback for continuous quality improvement.