The Association of Health Reform and Infant Health: Evidence from Massachusetts.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To estimate whether the incidence of low birthweight and rates of infant mortality were associated with Massachusetts health reform in the overall population and for subgroups that are at higher risk for poor health outcomes.

Data sources

Individual-level data on birthweight were obtained from the National Center for Health Statistics detailed natality files, and aggregated county-level mortality rates were generated from linked birth-death files. We used restricted versions of each file that had intact state and substate geographic identifiers.

Research design

We employed a quasi-experimental difference-in-differences design.

Principal results

We found small and statistically nonsignificant associations between the reform and the incidence of low bir

SUBMITTER: Boudreaux MH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6051966 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature