Maternal Care Patterns, Miscarriage, Pregnancy Related
Conditions
Brief summary
During the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Chelsea, Massachusetts held a lottery to allocate cash benefits to its residents for ten months. Using data from the Chelsea Eats program, the investigators propose to study the impact of the cash benefit on reproductive and perinatal health.
Interventions
OTHERCash Benefit
Spending from the cards was not restricted to food but could be spent on anything and anywhere Visa was accepted. The debit cards were credited with the first payment on November 18th, 2020 and the second payment on December 18th, 2020. The program continued with monthly credits through August 2021.
OTHERNo Cash Benefit
No monthly cash benefit.
Sponsors
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Harvard Medical School (HMS and HSDM)
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
TRIPLE (Caregiver, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
FEMALE
Age
15 Years to 44 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Resident of Chelsea, Massachusetts * Household income at or below 30% of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Area Median Income * Childbearing age
Exclusion criteria
* See inclusion criteria
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Pregnancy | 20 months | Pregnancies will be identified using the electronic health record, documented with a positive urine or blood pregnancy test, ultrasound, and/or diagnosis codes over the 10 months of the trial; because pregnancy without delivery is the primary outcome for our main analysis, the investigators will then determine whether each pregnancy did or did not result in a live childbirth delivered vaginally or via Cesarean section, which can occur after the 10 months of the trial |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Abortion | 20 months | Procedural abortions and prescriptions for medical abortions, focusing specifically on induced abortions |
| Prenatal vitamin prescriptions prior to pregnancy | 10 months | New use of prenatal vitamins, including multivitamins, as prescribed or documented in the electronic health record |
| Miscarriage | 20 months | Miscarriages presenting to the health care setting identified using diagnosis codes and documentation within clinical notes |
| Number and timing of prenatal visits before delivery | 20 months | Prenatal visits before delivery and initiation during first trimester |
| Composite of birth outcomes | 20 months | Following McConnell et al., this outcome is a composite of at least one of: low birth weight, preterm birth, small for gestational age, or perinatal mortality |
| Contraception | 10 months | Utilization of long-acting reversible contraceptive methods (intrauterine devices or implants) and prescriptions for hormonal birth control methods (pill, patch, ring) |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed