The impact of publicly funded perinatal care programs on neonatal outcome, Georgia, 1976-1978.

The State of Georgia administers three publicly funded perinatal care programs for medically high risk and/or low-income women: the High Risk Pregnancy Program, the Medicaid Program, and the Maternal and Infant Care Projects. To assess the impact of these programs on infant health, we compared the birth weight distribution and neonatal mortality rates of infants born to women in each program with those of infants of a nonfunded group of women with less than 12 years' education. Infants of women in publicly funded groups were more likely to weigh less than or equal to 2,500 gm at birth than those of women in the nonfunded group. Neonatal mortality rates for publicly funded groups were similar to those of the nonfunded group. The neonatal mortality rates for infants of birth weight less than or equal to 2,500 gm of publicly-funded women were significantly lower than those of the nonfunded women. There were no significant differences between groups for neonatal mortality rates for infants of birth weight greater than 2,500 gm. These findings suggest that publicly funded perinatal care programs may improve neonatal survival of infants of birth weight less than or equal to 2,500 gm of low-income mothers.