ArticleAnnals of epidemiology2025
Take-up of the 2021 child tax credit expansion among disadvantaged households in California: Continuing barriers to health equity.
Article in Annals of epidemiology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Safety net program participation and churning during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal analysis of low-income California families.SSM - population health · 2026Article
- The Impact of the 2021 Child Tax Credit on Perinatal Health: Evidence From the Expansion and Postexpiration Periods.American journal of preventive medicine · 2026Article
- Critical Windows for Perinatal Health: Evaluating the Impacts of Timing of Poverty Alleviation Benefits.American journal of preventive medicine · 2026Article
- "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
- Poverty, Policy, and Mental Health Inequities: Evidence, Challenges, and Opportunities.Harvard review of psychiatryReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIn 2021 Congress expanded the Child Tax Credit (CTC), one of the largest US economic supports for working families with proven benefits for health. Information on CTC take-up among eligible families is lacking. Understanding barriers to anti-poverty programs is an urgent policy issue, as low take-up is an established barrier to health equity.
methodsAmong a longitudinal cohort of primarily Latino and Black California families with low income (N = 380), we used data from individuals' 2019 and 2021 tax returns to compare CTC take-up (i.e., receipt among eligible individuals) pre- and post-program expansion. We also compared CTC take-up with take-up of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), a similar US anti-poverty tax policy. We also compared take-up rates by income, age, language, and education.
resultsCTC take-up was higher in 2021 (79 %) compared with 2019 (44 %). EITC take-up was relatively unchanged. CTC and EITC take-up was lower among marginalized groups across both periods.
conclusionCTC take-up increased in 2021 among this sample of low-income households, yet disparities persisted. Optimizing potential benefits of-and removing barriers to-the CTC and EITC could further reduce poverty and improve health equity. This study provides policymakers with timely evidence to inform program design to address persistent health and social inequities.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.