BMC Public Health published an RCT of iHEAL, a nurse visitation program for women who've experienced intimate partner violence (IPV). Quick take: Mostly well-conducted RCT finds sizable gain in Quality of Life & promising (but not definitive) decrease in PTSD 18 months after study entry.

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Program:

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• iHEAL provides nurse visits, focused on health promotion, to women who've experienced IPV & are separating from their partner. The visits take place every 1-2 weeks over 6 months. The program cost is modest (~$2,000 US dollars per woman).

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Study Design:

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• The study randomly assigned 340 women in Canada to iHEAL vs control (usual community care). Based on careful review, this was a mostly high-quality RCT (e.g., low attrition, preregistered primary outcomes) with a few baseline imbalances in demographic characteristics.

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Findings:

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• On the primary outcomes: 18 months after study entry, the study found a sizable, statistically significant gain in self-reported Quality of Life (effect size=0.29, equivalent to moving the average woman from the 50th to 61st percentile), & a similarly-sized decrease in PTSD symptoms that wasn't statistically significant - but close (p=0.11).

• The study also found sizable, statistically significant - or near significant - impacts on most secondary outcomes (e.g., depression, IPV severity).

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Comment:

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• Overall, I think these findings are very promising & iHEAL would be a great candidate for a replication RCT to hopefully confirm the results.