ReviewPaediatric and perinatal epidemiology2015
Poverty, Pregnancy, and Birth Outcomes: A Study of the Earned Income Tax Credit.
Review in Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 58 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
58 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Associations Between Unconditional Cash Transfers and Postpartum Outcomes in the United States : A Systematic Review.Annals of internal medicine · 2025Pooled it
- The impact of income-support interventions on life course risk factors and health outcomes during childhood: a systematic review in high income countries.BMC public health · 2023Pooled it
- The Effect of the Earned Income Tax Credit on Physical and Mental health-Results from the Atlanta Paycheck Plus Experiment.The Milbank quarterly · 2024Trial
- Effect of Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit to Americans Without Dependent Children on Psychological Distress.American journal of epidemiology · 2022Trial
- Newborn screening reduces survival disparities in SCID after stem cell transplant: A PIDTC report.Journal of human immunity · 2026Article
- Critical Windows for Perinatal Health: Evaluating the Impacts of Timing of Poverty Alleviation Benefits.American journal of preventive medicine · 2026Article
- Poverty during pregnancy as a health inequality: pregnant women's experiences in accessing primary health services.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Article
- Minimum Wage Policies and Obstetric Disorders in the U.S.American journal of preventive medicine · 2026Article
- Impacts of the 2021 child tax credit advance monthly payments on birth outcomes in the United States: a natural experiment.American journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- "It's confusing as hell": a qualitative study of barriers accessing poverty alleviation benefits through the US Earned Income Tax Credit.Health affairs scholar · 2025Article
- Effects of refundable state earned income tax credits on access to medical and dental services of low-income mothers.SSM - population health · 2025Article
- State Earned Income Tax Credits and Firearm Suicides.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- The fundamental importance of social insurance for health equity.Health affairs scholar · 2025Article
- Do social protection programmes affect the burden of breast and cervical cancer? A systematic review.Health policy OPEN · 2024Review
- The Causal Effect of Increasing Area-Level Income on Birth Outcomes and Pregnancy-Related Health: Estimates From the Marcellus Shale Boom Economy.Demography · 2024Article
- The long-term health effects of childhood exposure to social and economic policies: A scoping review.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2024Article
- No change in substance use disorders or overdose after implementation of state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).Drug and alcohol dependence · 2024Article
- Medicaid Expansion and Perinatal Health Outcomes: A Quasi-Experimental Study.Maternal and child health journal · 2024Article
- Social determinants of health rather than race impact health-related quality of life in 10-year-old children born extremely preterm.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2024Article
- Estimating the effect of timing of earned income tax credit refunds on perinatal outcomes: a quasi-experimental study of California births.BMC public health · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundEconomic interventions are increasingly recognised as a mechanism to address perinatal health outcomes among disadvantaged groups. In the US, the earned income tax credit (EITC) is the largest poverty alleviation programme. Little is known about its effects on perinatal health among recipients and their children. We exploit quasi-random variation in the size of EITC payments to examine the effects of income on perinatal health.
methodsThe study sample includes women surveyed in the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (n = 2985) and their children born during 1986-2000 (n = 4683). Outcome variables include utilisation of prenatal and postnatal care, use of alcohol and tobacco during pregnancy, term birth, birthweight, and breast-feeding status. We first examine the health effects of both household income and EITC payment size using multivariable linear regressions. We then employ instrumental variables analysis to estimate the causal effect of income on perinatal health, using EITC payment size as an instrument for household income.
resultsWe find that EITC payment size is associated with better levels of several indicators of perinatal health. Instrumental variables analysis, however, does not reveal a causal association between household income and these health measures.
conclusionsOur findings suggest that associations between income and perinatal health may be confounded by unobserved characteristics, but that EITC income improves perinatal health. Future studies should continue to explore the impacts of economic interventions on perinatal health outcomes, and investigate how different forms of income transfers may have different impacts.
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