Participation in group prenatal care may modestly influence well-child visit attendance in the 15 months following birth for mothers enrolled in Medicaid, according to a study published Oct. 8 in Academic Pediatrics.
Using Medicaid claims and vital statistics from the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and group prenatal site participation records (2013 to 2018), the researchers identified 3,191 patients who participated in group care and 5,184 matched women participating in individual prenatal care across 21 prenatal care practices.
The researchers found that while there was no difference overall in well-child visits, there were higher rates of well-child visit compliance over the first 15 months (4.7 percentage point difference) among women who participated in five or more group sessions. Even stronger associations between group prenatal care and well-child visit attendance were seen for low birthweight infants, Black infants, and infants of mothers with no previous live births.
“This study adds to a growing body of literature that shows the CenteringPregnancy model of group prenatal care is associated with a wide range of improved maternal and infant outcomes,” says coauthor Ana LaBoy, a research associate at the Georgia Health Policy Center. “While these are small differences in well-child visit attendance, at a population level these improvements may have meaningful impacts, although gaps in well-child visit attendance persist regardless of the prenatal care modality.”
Coauthors include Emily Heberlein, Jessica Smith, and Adejumobi Otekunrin, all formerly with the Georgia Health Policy Center; James Marton, from the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University; and Jessica Britt and Amy Crockett, from Prisma Health.
Click here to read the full study.