Education and employment outcomes in clients of the Nurse-Family Partnership.

OBJECTIVES: Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) is an evidence-based home visitation program designed for low-income, first-time mothers to support pregnancy, child development, and maternal self-sufficiency. This study examined educational and employment outcomes among NFP clients compared to a reference sample. DESIGN: Entropy balancing and a difference-in-difference design were used to compare the two samples of women from 2007 to 2016. SAMPLE: There were 127,427 women in the NFP sample, and 787 women in the reference cohort. MEASUREMENTS: Educational outcomes included high school completion and employment outcomes consisted of employment status. RESULTS: Across a one-year interval, NFP mothers with less than a high school diploma or general education diploma (GED) at baseline showed a 9.5 percentage point increase in diploma or GED attainment compared to the reference mothers [95% CI: 0.015-0.180]. Similarly, mothers enrolled in NFP who were not employed at baseline showed a 7.8 percentage point increase in employment compared to the reference mothers [95% CI: 0.003-0.150]. CONCLUSIONS: The findings in this study show positive results for NFP mothers attaining high school completion and employment compared to mothers in the reference group. Such findings are of importance with regard to progression toward economic self-sufficiency and corresponding reduction of health disparities.

The implementation of a culturally based HIV sexual risk reduction program for Latino youth in a Denver area high school.

In the United States, Latino youth experience disproportionately higher rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) than non-Latino Whites. As a result, organizations serving Latino youth seek culturally appropriate evidence-based prevention programs that promote sexual abstinence and condom use. Cuídate! is an efficacious HIV sexual risk reduction program for Latino youth aged 13-18. The program incorporates cultural beliefs that are common among Latino youth and associated with sexual risk behavior, and uses these beliefs to frame abstinence and condom use as culturally accepted and effective ways to prevent unintended pregnancy and STIs, including HIV/AIDS. Cuídate! has been successfully delivered in community agencies and after-school programs but has not been integrated into an existing school curriculum. This brief case study describes efforts to implement Cuídate! in a predominantly Latino urban high school in Denver. Ninety-three youth participated in the program from October 2007 to May 2008. Cuídate! was adapted to accommodate the typical class period by delivering program content over a larger number of sessions and extending the total amount of time of the program to allow for additional activities. Major challenges of program implementation included student recruitment and the "opt in" policy for participation. Despite these challenges, Cuídate! was implemented with minor adaptations in a school setting.