Summary of the 2017 National Healthy Start Evaluation
In February 2020, a national evaluation of the Healthy Start program was completed which aimed to:
- describe HS participants, allowing us to assess whether the program serves specific, intended populations
- identify factors among HS participants that are associated with a higher risk of adverse outcomes in order to inform targeted efforts of the program
- compare maternal and infant health outcomes among the HS population to those among socio-demographically similar non-participants
- compare participant outcomes to program targets
This evaluation used three different data sources from 2017:
- participant-level program data for HS participants collected via the Healthy Start Monitoring and Evaluation Data (HSMED) system
- live birth and infant death data from state vital records offices
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) data
This was the first attempt to conduct a matched analysis for Healthy Start conducted on a multi-state level, representing a successful collaboration of multiple national and local partners. The Healthy Start Evaluation Final Report (February 2020) is provided below. This document details the evaluation’s methodology, results, limitations, and conclusions/recommendations. The Summary of the 2017 National Healthy Start Evaluation highlights a number of key findings from the Final Report’s evaluation analysis, and briefly describes some of the limitations and challenges.
Healthy Start Evaluation Final Report (February 2020)
Summary of the 2017 National Healthy Start Evaluation (Posted May 2021)