Cost-benefit of a home-school linked mental health promotion program for Mexican American children and their mothers

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Julia Muennich Cowell, PhD, RNC, FAAN¹, Briana Jegier, PhD (c)², Diane McNaughton, PhD, RNC¹, Sarah Ailey, PhD, RNC¹, Louis Fogg, PhD¹, and Deborah Gross, DNSc, RN, FAAN³. (1) College of Nursing, Community and Mental Health Nursing, Rush University, 600 South Paulina, 1080 Armour Academic Center, Chicago, IL 60612, (312) 942-5836, julia_cowell@rush.edu, (2) School of Public, St. Louis University, 3545 Lafayette Ave, St. Louis, MO 63104, (3) Women's and Children's Health, Rush University College of Nursing, 600 S. Paulina, Chicago, IL 60612

Depression symptoms among Mexican American children are linked to suicidal thoughts, poor health conceptions, and school performance. The cost-benefit, however, of mental health promotion programs provided by public health nurses to Mexican American families is not known. The purpose of this paper is to report the cost-benefit ratio of the Mexican American Problem Solving (MAPS) program. MAPS was designed to provide problem solving practice to Mexican immigrant women and their fourth and fifth grade children (N = 302 dyads). MAPS was delivered over 20 weeks on individual home visits to mothers and to groups of children in after school classes. Data were collected at baseline, 20 and 60 weeks post baseline on home visits. School data was retrieved from children's report cards. The costs of the program include the data collection (social worker) time, intervention nurse time, supplies for mother's and children's activities and study incentives. The benefits of the program include statistically significant improvements for school work habits (p<.05), and child health conceptions (p<.05).Three way interaction effects includes statistically significant improvements for family problem solving communication (p<.05) and child depression (p<.05). Individual cost benefit ratios for each benefit listed will be reported. There has been limited research into the costs of providing public health nursing programs that improve mental health and school performance among Mexican American families. The findings of this study provide economic evidence to plan mental health promotion for Mexican immigrant women and their children.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will

1) identify the cost benefit of the Mexican American Problem Solving (MAPS) program, a public health nursing intervention to promote mental health.
2) identify variables to perform cost benefit analysis.
3) discuss the significance of cost benefit analysis in mental health promotion programming for Mexican American families in the school community.

Keywords: Hispanic Youth, Economic Analysis

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Public Health

The 134th Annual Meeting & Exposition (November 4-8, 2006) of APHA