Content of Prenatal Care: The Effect of Comprehensiveness, Continuity andCoordination. Abstract and Executive Summary of Dissertation

摘要

Prenatal care has been associated with improved infant health outcomes, but thereis a deficit in research that defines the content of prenatal care and its most important components. This study investigates the content of prenatal care in terms of the relationship between comprehensiveness, practitioner continuity and problem coordination and infant birthweight and gestational age. Using a quasi-experimental design, a subject sample of low-income pregnant women (N=537) were assigned to either a traditional medical model (OB), or a comprehensive multidisciplinary model (MIC) for prenatal care. Higher comprehensiveness scores, especially at MIC, were associated with improved birth outcomes. Since the comprehensiveness variable reflected counseling and education in the medical, social and nutritional aspects of prenatal care, its positive association with improvements in infant health is particularly pertinent in reinforcing the important interplay between socio-economic factors and health.