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Published on: January 12, 2018
Impact of a Large Healthy Start Program on Perinatal Outcomes, South Carolina, 2009-2019
Jihong Liu1, Longgang Zhao1, Xingpei Zhao1
1Jihong Liu, Longgang Zhao, Xingpei Zhao, Eric Mishio Bawa, Sabrina Karim, and Anwar T. Merchant are with the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia. Kimberly Alston is with Midlands Healthy Start, Prisma Health, Columbia, SC. Jun Tang is with the Division of Biostatistics, South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, Columbia. Sara Wilcox is with the Department of Exercise Science and the Prevention Research Center, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia.
Abstract:
Using linked birth and death certificates for participants served by a Healthy Start program in South Carolina and community controls, we found that the Healthy Start program contributed to significant improvements in prenatal care, breastfeeding initiation, and participation in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children and significant reductions in inadequate weight gain and large-for-gestational-age births. However, Healthy Start participants were more likely to gain excessive weight during pregnancy, and there were no significant differences in perinatal outcomes. (Am J Public Health. 2023;113(5):509-513. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2023.307232).
