Unique Profiles of Postpartum Family Needs and Evidence of Racial and Ethnic Disparities: Insights from Community Implementation of Family Connects

To delineate specific family needs during the postpartum period using data from Family Connects (FC), a universal home-visiting initiative, and to scrutinize potential racial and ethnic disparities in these needs.

FC implementation data spanned from July 1, 2009, to August 31, 2021, in seven counties across the USA. Data encompassed nurse-led in-home assessments for 34,119 families. Nurses evaluated needs across four domains (healthcare, parenting/childcare, safe home, and parent support) comprising 12 risk factors.

Overall, families reported high levels of need, and community connections were facilitated for 57% of visited families. Significant differences in need profiles between whites and minority groups were revealed, reflecting both disparity and uniqueness. Employing the Oaxaca decomposition approach, we found that racial/ethnic disparities in socioeconomic attributes were associated with racial/ethnic gaps in the need profiles.

The event of giving birth is both high risk and high opportunity for preventive intervention. Home-visiting programs, as an evidence-based approach, must address the diverse spectrum of familial needs comprehensively.