Annals of family medicine
-
Annals of family medicine · May 2007
Randomized Controlled TrialHome visiting for adolescent mothers: effects on parenting, maternal life course, and primary care linkage.
Adolescent mothers are at risk for rapidly becoming pregnant again and for depression, school dropout, and poor parenting. We evaluated the impact of a community-based home-visiting program on these outcomes and on linking the adolescents with primary care. ⋯ This community-based home-visiting program improved adolescent mothers' parenting attitudes and school continuation, but it did not reduce their odds of repeat pregnancy or depression or achieve coordination with primary care. Coordinated care may require explicit mechanisms to promote communication between the community program and primary care.