Baseline characteristics of participants by trial arm. Values are numbers (percentages) unless stated otherwise
| Support health visitor intervention (n = 183) | Community group services intervention (n = 184) | Control group (n = 364) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *Includes council accommodation, housing association properties, and temporary accommodation. †In this screening tool, the higher the score, the greater the likelihood of maternal depression. ‡“Special health needs” as defined by the participant. | ||||||
| Study child is mother’s first baby | 87 | (48) | 92 | (50) | 176 | (48) |
| Mother’s age at birth of index child mean (SD) (years) | 29.5 | (5.9) | 29.7 | (5.9) | 29.6 | (5.8) |
| Baby’s age at baseline (weeks) mean (SD) | 9.0 | (3.5) | 9.6 | (3.8) | 9.2 | (3.2) |
| Mother defines ethnicity as “white” | 99 | (54) | 104 | (57) | 217 | (60) |
| English not mother’s first language | 73 | (40) | 70 | (38) | 139 | (38) |
| Mother is a lone parent | 53 | (29) | 47 | (26) | 89 | (25) |
| Family lives in “public”housing | 127 | (69) | 126 | (69) | 257 | (71) |
| Mother left full time education <16 years | 14 | (8) | 23 | (13) | 32 | (9) |
| Weekly household income ⩽£200 | 90 | (56) | 95 | (56) | 169 | (54) |
| Maternal depression mean (SD) —Edinburgh postnatal depression scale score† | 8.8 | (5.7) | 8.8 | (5.2) | 9.1 | (5.3) |
| Mother smokes | 42 | (23) | 55 | (30) | 95 | (26) |
| Baby “difficult” to care for | 18 | (11) | 16 | (9) | 33 | (10) |
| Bottle feeding exclusively at baseline (9 weeks) | 68 | (37) | 69 | (38) | 126 | (35) |
| Mother or child/ren have “special health needs”‡ | 26 | (14) | 32 | (17) | 54 | (15) |
| Mother had “no support” in past month | 11 | (6) | 9 | (5) | 17 | (5) |