A Randomized Trial of Psychosocial Support during High-Risk Pregnancies

VILLAR, JOSÉ; FARNOT, UBALDO; BARROS, FERNANDO; VICTORA, CESAR; LANGER, ANA; BELIZAN, JOSÉ M.

NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE

MASSACHUSETTS MEDICAL SOC

Año: 1992 vol. 327 p. 1266 - 1271

0028-4793

BACKGROUND.It is often suggested that psychological and social support and health education for women at high risk for delivering a low-birth-weight infant can improve the outcomes of pregnancy, but the evidence is inconclusive. We undertook this prospective trial to evaluate a program of home visits designed to provide psychosocial support during pregnancy.METHODS.At four centers in Latin America, 2235 women at higher-than-average risk for delivering a low-birth-weight infant were recruited before the 20th week of pregnancy. The women were randomly assigned either to an intervention group (n = 1115) that received four to six home visits from a nurse or social worker in addition to routine prenatal care or to a control group (n = 1120) that received only routine prenatal care (with a mean of eight prenatal visits). The principal measures of outcome were low birth weight (