Authors' recommendations: We included ten systematic reviews of high methodological quality. The findings show that: •Counselling, education and information about breastfeeding by health care workers adapted for low-income women can probably increase the proportion who initiate breastfeeding and who breastfeed at 3-6 months. Such interventions can perhaps also increase the proportion who initiate exclusive breastfeeding. •Home visiting programs for families with low socioeconomic status can probably reduce the prevalence of childhood injuries. It is uncertain whether it has any effect on uptake of childhood vaccinations. •Parent training programs adapted for socially disadvantaged families can perhaps prevent some externalizing behaviour of the child. •Support or outreach by lay health care workers for families with low socioeconomic status do probably not alter the proportion who initiate breastfeeding, but can perhaps considerably increase the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding the first 6 months and who breastfeed the first year. Such interventions can probably also increase the uptake of childhood vaccinations, but has probably little effect on child fruit intake Several of the study populations included ethnic minorities, but none of the systematic reviews addressed effects of interventions adapted for the needs of ethnic minorities. There is very limited documentation on whether parent training programs for teenage mothers and interventions for mothers with postnatal depression can improve aspects of mother-child interaction. Many of the studies were conducted in countries where the health services are organised differently from our country. Due to aspects of study design and implementation or small studies, we had generally moderate to low confidence in the documentation. When we have low confidence in the documentation this does not mean that the interventions are ineffective, but that the documentation is limited to infer on the magnitude of any effects.

Project Status: Completed

Year Published: 2014

URL for published report: http://www.kunnskapssenteret.no/publikasjoner/effekt-av-tilpassede-tiltak-for-helsestasjonstjenesten?onepage=1

English language abstract: An English language summary is available

Publication Type: Not Assigned

Country: Norway

Organisation Name: Norwegian Institute of Public Health

Contact Address: Universitetsgata 2, Postbox 7004 St. Olavs plass, NO-0310 Oslo NORWAY. Tel: +47 23 25 50 00; Fax: +47 23 25 50 10;

Contact Name: Berit.Morland@nokc.no, dagny.fredheim@nokc.no

Contact Email: Berit.Morland@nokc.no, dagny.fredheim@nokc.no

Copyright: Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services (NOKC)