Improving heart health for moms and young children through home visits
Enhancing Cardiovascular Health in Mothers and Children Through Home Visiting
This project offers a home-visiting program to help pregnant women and mothers of young children build healthier habits that protect both their and their children's heart health.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Washington University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Saint Louis, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11129683 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
You would receive regular home visits from trained staff who teach healthier eating, activity, and other heart-healthy behaviors starting during pregnancy and continuing until your child is about 30 months old. The program builds on a proven HEALTH lifestyle approach and partners with Parents as Teachers, a home-visiting network active across the U.S. During an initial planning phase, researchers and partners will agree on a common heart-health protocol, and then in the main phase the approach will be delivered and tested across participating sites over three years. The trial uses a cluster-randomized, pragmatic design to see if the program leads to lasting improvements in weight, blood pressure, and related behaviors for mothers and children.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal candidates are pregnant women or mothers of infants and toddlers (through about 30 months) who are enrolled in or eligible for participating Parents as Teachers or other home-visiting programs.
Not a fit: People who are not enrolled in participating home-visiting sites, fathers alone, children older than the enrollment window, or those seeking immediate medical or surgical heart treatments may not receive direct benefit from this program.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the program could help mothers and young children achieve healthier weight, better blood pressure, and stronger lifelong heart-health habits.
How similar studies have performed: Earlier trials of the HEALTH intervention showed improvements in weight and health behaviors among pregnant and young mothers, though this large-scale, long-term cluster implementation is newer.
Where this research is happening
Saint Louis, United States
- Washington University — Saint Louis, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Haire-Joshu, Debra — Washington University
- Study coordinator: Haire-Joshu, Debra
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.