Investigators at Michigan State University Report Findings in Managed Care (Community Health Workers: Improving Home Visiting Engagement of High-risk Birthing People In Segregated Neighborhoods): Managed Care

2024 JUL 24 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Fresh data on Managed Care are presented in a new report. According to news reporting out of Grand Rapids, United States, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “Racial and ethnic disparities in perinatal health remain a public health crisis. Despite improved outcomes from home visiting (HV) participation during pregnancy, most eligible individuals of color do not engage.”

Financial support for this research came from Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Michigan State University, “Neighborhood segregation, a manifestation of structural racism, may impose constraints on engaging eligible individuals in HV. To examine whether race, ethnicity, and/or language-concordant community health workers (CHWs) increased HV engagement for birthing people in segregated neighborhoods. Program evaluation using administrative linked data from birth records, Medicaid claims, and HV program participation. Strong Beginnings (SB), a program with HV provided by CHWs working with nurses and social workers, was compared with the Maternal Infant Health Program (MIHP), a state Medicaid-sponsored HV program without CHW involvement. Data were analyzed using chi 2 tests and Poisson regressions. A total of 4560 individuals with a Medicaid-eligible birth between 2016 and 2019, including 1172 from SB and 3388 from the MIHP. Penetration (percentage of participants in HV among all Medicaid-eligible individuals across quintiles of neighborhood segregation) and dosage (the total number of home visits from both CHWs and nurses/social workers, and then restricted to those from nurses/social workers). SB penetrated more segregated neighborhoods than the MIHP (58.4% vs 48.3%; P< .001). SB participants received a higher dosage of home visits (mean [SD]: 11.9 [6.1]) than MIHP participants (mean [SD]: 4.4 [2.8], P< .001). Importantly, CHWs did not replace but moderately increased home visits from nurses and social workers (51.1% vs 35.2% with >= 5 intervention visits, P< .001), especially in more segregated neighborhoods. Policy Implication: Community-informed HV models intentionally designed for people facing disparities may help facilitate program outreach to segregated neighborhoods with concentrated deprivation and reduce racial and ethnic disparities. An HV program provided by CHWs working with nurses and social workers was associated with an increase in penetration and dosage in segregated neighborhoods, compared with HV without CHW involvement.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “This underscores the value of CHWs partnering with licensed professional workers in improving HV engagement in disadvantaged communities.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Community Health Workers: Improving Home Visiting Engagement of High-risk Birthing People In Segregated Neighborhoods. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 2024;30(3). Journal of Public Health Management and Practice can be contacted at: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Two Commerce Sq, 2001 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA. (Lippincott Williams and Wilkins - www.lww.com; Journal of Public Health Management and Practice - http://journals.lww.com/jphmp/pages/default.aspx)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Xiao Yu, Michigan State University, Dept. of Obstetrics Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, College of Human Medicine, 15 Michigan St NE, Grand Rapids, ND 49503, United States. Additional authors for this research include Cristian I. Meghea, Jennifer E. Raffo, Ran Meng, Lee Anne Roman, Peggy Vander Meulen and Celeste Sanchez Lloyd.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1097/PHH.0000000000001861. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)