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Welcome to the Prevention Research Center for Family and Child Health
The Department of Pediatrics Prevention Research Center for Family and Child Health, combined with the National Center for Children, Families and Communities, currently has a staff of nearly thirty full- and part-time employees. Please visit our links, indexed at left, to find out about our research, research funding and education activities and our recent publications and awards and honors.
Overview
The Prevention Research Center for Family and Child Health (PRC) has three major research foci. The first is the examination of the long-term impact of a program of prenatal and infancy home visiting by nurses on the health and development of low-income, first-time mothers and their families. With funding from the National Institutes of Health, other federal agencies and private philanthropies, longitudinal follow-ups of randomized trials of this program are being conducted in Elmira, New York; Memphis, Tennessee; and Denver, Colorado. The longitudinal follow-ups look at program effects on maternal economic self-sufficiency, substance abuse and children's adaptive functioning, including mental health, criminal behavior and productive life-course as the children reach adolescence and young adulthood. A recently funded follow-up of the Elmira trial is examining the long-term impact of the program on the adult life-course of children whose mothers were enrolled in the study during pregnancy and is examining the moderating impact that genetic polymorphisms may play in moderating the effect of the program on antisocial behavior and depression.
In recent years, the PRC has begun a process of careful replication of the nurse home visitation program tested in these studies (now called the Nurse-Family Partnership program) in an effort to make the services available to a large portion of low-income pregnant women in the US. The national replication of the program is managed by a nonprofit organization known as the Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP). The NFP national office helps communities develop their capacity to implement the program and provides training and technical assistance to nurses who deliver the services.
The second major focus of the PRC is now on conducting research aimed at improving the NFP program model with the use of randomized, controlled trials of augmented versions of the NFP model. Randomized trials of these program augmentations, conducted in the system of program sites around the country, include studies of interventions designed to help nurses deal more effectively with maternal depression and to more fully engage participants in the program.
The third and growing focus of the PRC involves international work. In 2004, the PRC began responding to inquiries from researchers and/or government health agencies abroad that were interested in possibly developing the Nurse-Family Partnership program in their country. Over the past four years, the PRC has entered into five contractual agreements to consult on the research and development of NFP programs abroad. For further information, visit our Nurse-Family
Partnership International Program webpage.
The PRC is also recognized for its periodic reviews of early intervention literature; its support of early intervention programs wishing to improve their effectiveness; its consultation with government and private agencies; and its training of prevention scientists.
Contact Information
Please direct your questions or requests for additional information about the Prevention Research Center for Family and Child Health to:
Robin Tutt
Trials Project Manager
Prevention Research Center for Family and Child Health
University of Colorado Denver
Dept. of Pediatrics, Mail Stop 8410
Education 2 South, Room 5315
13121 E. 17th Avenue
P.O. Box 6511
Aurora, CO 80045
Tel: (303) 724-2893
Fax: (303) 724-2901
E-mail: robin.tutt@uchsc.edu
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