Caution must therefore be exercised in interpreting results , but the case for investment in parenting and health visitor-related programmes appears most strong , especially when impacts beyond the health sector are taken into account .
In the workplace an economic return on investment in a number of comprehensive workplace health promotion programmes and stress management projects ( largely in the USA ) was reported , while group-based exercise and psychosocial interventions are of potential benefit to older people .
Effect of Prenatal and Infancy Nurse Home Visitation on Government Spending
A completed series of reports on a r and omized trial ( N=400 ) indicated that , in contrast to comparison services , prenatal and infancy nurse home visitation improved a wide range of maternal and child health outcomes among poor , unmarried , and teenaged women bearing first children in a semirural county in upstate New York . Eighty-nine percent of the sample was white , and all analyses focused on this group . In this article , an analysis of the net cost of the home-visitation program from the perspective of government spending is presented . The average per-family cost of the program in 1980 dollars was $ 3,246 for the sample as a whole , and $ 3,133 for low-income families . Treatment differences in government expenditures for Aid to Families with Dependent Children , Food Stamps , Medicaid , and Child Protective Services , minus tax revenues due to maternal employment ( also expressed in 1980 dollars ) , were conceived as government savings . By the time the children were 4 years of age , government savings were $ 1,772 ( 95 % confidence interval [ CI ] : -$557 , $ 4,102 ) for the sample as a whole , and $ 3,498 ( 95 % CI : $ 569 , $ 6,427 ) for low-income families . Within 2 years after the program ended , after discounting , the net cost of the program ( program costs minus savings ) for the sample as a whole was $ 1,582 per family . For low-income families , the cost of the program was recovered with a dividend of $ 180 per family
Caution must therefore be exercised in interpreting results , but the case for investment in parenting and health visitor-related programmes appears most strong , especially when impacts beyond the health sector are taken into account .
In the workplace an economic return on investment in a number of comprehensive workplace health promotion programmes and stress management projects ( largely in the USA ) was reported , while group-based exercise and psychosocial interventions are of potential benefit to older people .