What is the Role of Prenatal Care in Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Pregnancy Outcomes?

Walford, Hannah Holcombe; Trinh, Sonya; Wiencrot, Anna; Lu, Michael C.

doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-1499-6_8

Cited by 13 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 86 publications

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“…Conversely, there has been literature published questioning the efficacy of prenatal care to improve birth outcomes, stating that prenatal care is too late to improve birth outcomes because many of the interventions to prevent adverse maternal and infant outcomes are not administered soon enough to have an effect (Atrash, Johnson, Adams, Cordero, & Howse, ). An extensive literature review examining the published research on the effectiveness of prenatal care to improve low birth weight concluded that prenatal care may improve outcomes other than low birth weight such as reduced maternal, fetal and infant morbidity and mortality (Walford, Trinh, Wiencrot, & Lu, ). Preconception care, women's health prior to becoming pregnant, is now being recommended to improve perinatal outcomes (Atrash et al., ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk of Very Low Birth Weight Based on Perinatal Periods of Risk

Demont-Heinrich

Hawkes

Ghosh

et al. 2013

Public Health Nursing

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk of Very Low Birth Weight Based on Perinatal Periods of Risk

Demont-Heinrich

Hawkes

Ghosh

et al. 2013

Public Health Nursing

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“…Low‐income women demonstrate increased malnutrition, smoking and alcohol use, and psychological stress with neuroendocrine dysfunction . They are less likely to have access to prenatal care or to breast feed . Consequently, poverty during pregnancy is strongly correlated with child health and development .…”

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confidence: 99%

Poverty, Pregnancy, and Birth Outcomes: A Study of the Earned Income Tax Credit

Hamad

Rehkopf

2015

Paediatric Perinatal Epid

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Background Economic interventions are increasingly recognized as a mechanism to address perinatal health outcomes among disadvantaged groups. In the United States, the earned income tax credit (EITC) is the largest poverty alleviation program. Little is known about its effects on perinatal health among recipients and their children. We exploit quasi-random variation in the size of EITC payments over time to examine the effects of income on perinatal health. Methods The study sample includes women surveyed in the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N=2,985) and their children born during 1986–2000 (N=4,683). Outcome variables include utilization of prenatal and postnatal care, use of alcohol and tobacco during pregnancy, term birth, birthweight, and breast-feeding status. We examine the health effects of both household income and EITC payment size using multivariable linear regressions. We employ instrumental variables analysis to estimate the causal effect of income on perinatal health, using EITC payment size as an instrument for household income. Results We find that household income and EITC payment size are associated with improvements in several indicators of perinatal health. Instrumental variables analysis, however, does not reveal a causal association between household income and these health measures. Conclusions Our findings suggest that associations between income and perinatal health may be confounded by unobserved characteristics, but that EITC income improves perinatal health. Future studies should continue to explore the impacts of economic interventions on perinatal health outcomes, and investigate how different forms of income transfers may have different impacts.

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“…Birth outcomes, in fact, depend on a range of factors, extending from maternal health over the life course to system‐level factors related to access, culturally competent care, perceptions of and satisfaction with systems of care, transportation, and a range of social and community‐level variables (Collins et al., , ; Dominguez, , ; Lu & Halfon, ; Murrell, Smith, Gill, & Oxley, ). Emerging models seeking to explain disparities in birth outcomes emphasize the need to look beyond individual risk factors and individual‐level interventions to family, community, and institutional systems (Lu & Halfon, ; Walford, Trinh, Wiencrot, & Lu, ). In particular, service coordination and integration, cross‐sectorial collaboration, and embedded community partnerships have been posited as critical elements in improving birth outcomes for African American women (Dominguez, ; Lu, ; Lu et al., ; Sparks, ; Walford et al., ).…”

Section: The Ecology Of Organizationsmentioning

confidence: 99%