CHDR FUNDED PILOT STUDIES

Passport to Health: Reducing Violence Related Disparities

Phyllis Sharps, PhD, RN (JHUSON)
Patricia Price Lea, PhD, RN (NCA&TSON)

Women of color and their children compared to non-minority families are at great risk for health disparities. The context of their lives, which often includes lower levels of education, higher rates of poverty, and higher vulnerability to intimate partner violence (IPV) contributes significantly to health disparities which are manifested in decreased access to care, shorter life expectancy, higher rates of infant mortality, greater prevalence of chronic diseases, certain cancers and infections, as well as traumatic injuries from IPV.

This pilot project proposes to test the feasibility and obtain preliminary (qausi experimental) data on the efficacy of a community health nursing home intervention (CHNVI) to reduce health disparities by increasing: access to health care, health promoting and safety behaviors, and parenting skills of women and children survivors of IPV. Community health nurses (CHN) will assist families, by developing a Passport to Health, used to identify appropriate health goals and adopt behaviors that will help them to achieve these goals and access to health care.

Residents of 2 domestic violence shelters (rural NC and urban MD) will be recruited to the post shelter CHNVI or comparison (post shelter usual care) groups. The CHNVI includes health education for women's and children's health and parenting; strategies for implementing safety plans; and coaching and/or referrals for accessing health care. Data will be examined to compare outcomes between the intervention and comparison groups.

We hypothesize that women and children survivors of IPV enrolled in the CHNVI will report: 1) increased health behaviors and use of appropriate health visits; 2) increased use of safety behaviors; and 3) increased parenting skills and less parenting stress. The results will be used as a basis for a clinical trial intervention proposal.