An empirical assessment of the Healthy Early Childhood Program in Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil

Abstract

We investigate the effect of a family-based primary health care program (Healthly Early Childhood Program) on infant mortality in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. We estimate infant mortality's counterfactual trajectories using the differences-in-differences approach, combined with the use of longitudinal data for all municipalities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Our main result is that the program reduced the number of deaths caused by external causes. The length of exposure to the program seems to potentiate the effects. For the number of deaths by general causes, there is no evidence of impact. Our findings are consistent with the nature of the program that aims to improve adults care with children. The Healthly Early Childhood Program is effective in reducing the number of avoidable deaths in infants.

Effectiveness of a large-scale home visiting programme (PIM) on early child development in Brazil: quasi-experimental study nested in a birth cohort

“…However, there are still no published evaluations of the effect of PIM or Criança Feliz on ECD in quasi-experimental longitudinal studies or RCTs. Previous ecological studies suggested the existence of associations between PIM and reduced child mortality from external causes 23 and reductions in school violence. 24 One cross-sectional study with a sample of 571 children found no differences in ECD between PIM intervention and control groups.…”

Knowledge forms and gendered moralities in policies of infant care in Brazil

“…While citing evaluations that describe how children from the programme attain superior achievement in practically all areas (cognitive development, language, motor function, socio-emotional behaviour, and so on), the author goes on to point out the gross shortcomings -whether in terms of project design, sample selection or statistical analysis -of literally every one of the studies (Verch, 2017). In another more recent statistical evaluation carried out by universitybased researchers of PIM, the authors clearly state that they have found no reliable evidence to demonstrate the programme's positive impact on children's cognitive or socioemotional performance (Ribeiro et al, 2018).…”

Assessing the influence of Brazilian mayors' human capital and political context on fiscal inputs

“…In Latin America, subnational government performance has been assessed in terms of tax collection Gomes, 2015, Petrovsky andAvellaneda, 2014); financial indicators (Avellaneda 2009b, Gomes et al, 2013; health care scores (Dantas et al, 2017, Olvera and Avellaneda, 2019, Ferraresi, 2021, De Oliveira et al, 2016, Paschoalotto et al, 2018, Ribeiro et al, 2018, Russo et al, 2019, Vargas et al, 2015; electricity and water services, educational achievements (Avellaneda, 2009a, Caetano et al 2017, Queiroz et al, 2020, Rosa et al, 2019, Paschoalotto et al, 2020Santos et al, 2020); and environmental indicators (Dantas et al, 2017, De la Riva 2021.…”