Brief Scoping Review of Pathways Community Hubs for the Care of Pregnant Mothers and Their Infants

Pathways Community Hub (PCH) programs help connect pregnant women to healthcare and social services. A scoping review of peer-reviewed studies on PCHs that reported quantitative outcomes was conducted.

A search of academic databases from 1901 to 2024 initially yielded a total of 1,312 articles, which was ultimately reduced to 4 articles after duplicates were removed, and two levels of screening were conducted to determine whether studies met the inclusion criteria of evaluating a community hub for pregnant women, was written in English, was peer-reviewed, and reported quantitative outcomes.

The four studies in the scoping review included data collected from 2014 to 2020 in Ohio, Arizona, and Kansas. Sample sizes of participants in PCHs ranged from 112 to 7,212. In all four studies, the majority of participants was mothers from racial/ethnic minority groups. All four studies had a comparison group, and three of the four used propensity score matching. Three studies focused on infants' low birth weight (LBW) as an outcome and found PCHs were associated with reduced rates of LBW. The fourth study reported that PCHs were associated with a greater likelihood of receipt of adequate prenatal care among participating women.

While these studies provide some preliminary evidence of the benefits of PCHs, no randomized trial could be found. More rigorous, multi-site studies are needed to move PCHs up the evidence hierarchy as an effective model of care for pregnant women and their babies.