Resumen de Effectiveness of a Household Environmental Health Intervention Delivered by Rural Public Health Nurses.
Patricia Butterfield, Wade Hill, Julie Postma, Phillip W. Butterfieid, Tamara Odom-Maryon
Objectives. Parents need meaningful and actionable information if they are to reduce household environmental health risks to their children. To address this issue, we tested the effectiveness of a multi-risk social/cognitive intervention on rural low income parents' (1) environmental health self-efficacy and (2) stage of environmental health precautionary adoption. Methods. Biomarker (lead, cotinine) and household samples (carbon monoxide, radon, mold/mildew, and drinking water contaminants) were collected from 235 families (399 adults, 441 children) in Montana and Washington states. Families were randomly assigned to intervention or control groups; intervention families received 4 visits from public health nurses who provided tailored information and guidance to parents; controls received usual and customary public health services. Results. At 3 months, the intervention group had significantly higher scores on (1) all 6 risk-specific self-efficacy subscales (P<.01), (2) general environmental health self-efficacy (P<.001), (3) 5 of 6 risk-specific precaution adoption subscales (P<.05), and (4) general environmental health precaution adoption (P<.001). Conclusions. The intervention yielded significant improvements in both outcomes. This evidence supported the need for a policy discussion addressing the added value that broadbased public health nurse interventions might bring to children's environmental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
