Researchers at University of California Release New Study Findings on Population Health (Inequities in newborn screening: Race and the role of medicaid)

2019 DEC 06 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- Fresh data on population health are presented in a new report. According to news originating from the University of California by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Newborn Screening (NBS) is a State-run program that mandates all newborns to be screened for a panel of medical conditions to reduce infant mortality and morbidity.”

Funders for this research include California Center for Population Research, University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, Los Angeles; Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from University of California: “Medicaid is a public health insurance program that expanded access to care for low-income infants. NBS mandates and Medicaid rolled out state-by-state in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, which are considered significant programs that improved infant health in the latter half of the 20th Century. This article utilized variation in States’ timing of NBS mandates and Medicaid implementation to examine changes in infant mortality rates among white and African American infants associated with NBS, Medicaid, and their interaction. The analyses used data from birth and death certificates in the US Vital Statistics from 1959 to 1995. We find that the implementation of NBS mandates alone was not associated with significant declines in infant mortality and coincided with increases in within-state racial inequities.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “States experienced mortality declines and reduction in racial inequities after implementing Medicaid with NBS mandates.”

For more information on this research see: Inequities in newborn screening: Race and the role of medicaid. SSM: Population Health, 2019,9. (SSM: Population Health - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/ssm-population-health/). The publisher for SSM: Population Health is Elsevier.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2019.100496.

Our news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Heeju Sohn, California Center for Population Research, University of California, Los Angeles, 337 Charles E. Young Drive East, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA. Additional authors for this research include Stefan Timmermans.

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