A Scoping Review of Home Visiting Research Using Linked Data

Research points to the benefits of using multiple, rather than single, data sources to understand families’ home visiting experiences and outcomes.

As part of its continued work to promote data sharing and interoperability, the HARC team conducted a scoping review of published, peer-reviewed research using early childhood home visiting data linked with other administrative datasets.

This brief summarizes methods used to conduct the scoping review, results from article extraction and analyses, and implications. Data sources, linkage methods, study designs, research questions, and outcome categories are described.

The authors state that the articles collectively demonstrate the value of linking data to answer research questions that cannot be readily answered with home visiting program data alone. They also highlight gaps and opportunities for research questions, study designs, data linkage work, and partner and community engagement.