title: Analyzing the effect of prenatal care on pregnancy outcome: a conditional approach.
abstract: We used vital statistics data to examine the effect of the time of entry into prenatal care relative to the gestational age of delivery on pregnancy outcome. Early entry into prenatal care was associated with better outcomes only in women who delivered at 37 through 42 weeks of gestation. We are concerned that the evaluation of the effect of prenatal care using vital statistics data may be questionable because of the problems inherent in the data.
authors.affiliation: Division of Prevention Research, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, Maryland.
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Malloy
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Kao
authors.forename: Y J
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D015982:Bias; D001719:Birth Certificates; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D003644:Death Certificates; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D008423:Maternal Age; D008498:Medical Record Linkage; D008923:Missouri / Q000453:epidemiology; D009035:Mothers / Q000193:education; D010298:Parity; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D011295:Prenatal Care / Q000592:standards*; D044469:Racial Groups; D012307:Risk Factors