Moving toward evidence-based federal Healthy Start program evaluations: accounting for bias in birth outcomes studies

Cristian I Meghea1, Jennifer E Raffo, Peggy VanderMeulen

  • 1Cristian I. Meghea, Jennifer E. Raffo, and Lee Anne Roman are with the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing. Cristian I. Meghea is also with the Institute for Health Policy, Michigan State University. Peggy VanderMeulen is with Strong Beginnings Federal Healthy Start Program, Spectrum Health, Grand Rapids, MI.

We used administrative and screening data from 2009 to 2010 to determine if Healthy Start (HS), an enhanced prenatal services program, is reaching the most vulnerable African American women in Kent County, Michigan. Women in HS are at higher risk of key predictors of birth outcomes compared with other women. To advance toward evidence-based HS program evaluations in the absence of randomized controlled trials, future studies using comparison groups need to appropriately establish baseline equivalence on a variety of risk factors related to birth outcomes.

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