This study evaluated the outcomes of a public health nurse home visiting system for mothers with learning disabilities and for those in a comparison group without learning disabilities. The study authors carried out a secondary analysis of existing family home visiting data using a two-group comparative design.  They looked at 68 (17 for mothers with LD and 51 for mothers without LD).

The study found that both mothers with and mothers without learning disabilities showed statistically significant improvements following visits from the family home visiting services. Discharge scores were higher than corresponding admission scores,.

Seven of the twenty one outcomes measured improved significantly for mothers with learning disabilities, whereas this was the case for 10 of the 21 outcomes for the comparison group.

Public health nurses in the home visiting scheme addressed 15 environmental, psychosocial, physiological and behavioural problems for both groups.

The authors conclude that family home visiting was effective in assisting parents with learning disabilities to improve outcomes in many domains and suggest that further analysis of the areas where support was most effective would provide an opportunity for service providers to better understand the needs of mothers with learning disabilities.

Family home visiting outcomes for mothers with and without intellectual disabilities, Monson K et al, in Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 55: 484–499