title: Preventing low birth weight in Illinois: outcomes of the family case management program.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In the mid 1980's the federal government passed legislation allowing states to expand their Medicaid programs for pregnant women. States were also offered matching funds for "enhanced" prenatal care services. The Illinois Family Case Management (FCM) Program targets low-income women and aims to reduce barriers to prenatal care and infant healthcare utilization and also provides health education. We evaluated the outcome of the Illinois Family Case Management Program (FCM) in preventing low birth weight in Winnebago County.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 6,440 participants were included in this study. Logistic regression was used to test whether number of visits or total hours of visitation were significant protective factors against low birth weight.
  
  
  RESULTS
  While participating in the FCM Program resulted in a lower rate of low birth weight delivery, neither increasing time with a family case manager nor increasing number of visits showed statistically significant additional protection against low birth weight delivery after adjustment for potential confounding factors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In order to further improve program outcomes, efforts need to include improving quality of interventions or developing new interventions rather than simply increasing the amount of current intervention for each participant. The cost effectiveness of shifting FCM Program efforts away from infants (aged 0-1 year) towards improved prenatal interventions should be evaluated.
authors.affiliation: The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health, Houston, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Rodrigo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: Mike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Raul
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Caetano
authors.forename: Corinne
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Aragaki
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D019090:Case Management / Q000191:economics*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007087:Illinois / Q000453:epidemiology; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008484:Medicaid / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011203:Poverty; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011295:Prenatal Care / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors