The program
of prenatal and infancy home visiting by nurses, tested with a primarily white sample, produced a 48 percent treatment - control
difference in the overall rates
of substantiated rates
of child abuse and neglect (
irrespective of risk) and an 80 percent
difference for families in which the mothers were low - income and unmarried at registration.21 Corresponding rates
of child maltreatment were too low to serve as a viable outcome in a subsequent trial
of the program in a large sample
of urban African - Americans, 20 but program effects on children's health - care encounters for serious injuries and ingestions at child
age 2 and reductions in childhood mortality from preventable causes at child
age 9 were consistent with the prevention
of abuse and neglect.20, 22