During the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Chelsea, Massachusetts held a lottery to allocate cash benefits to its residents for ten months. Using data from the Chelsea Eats program, the investigators propose to study the impact of the cash benefit on reproductive and perinatal health.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
TRIPLE
Enrollment
3,615
Spending from the cards was not restricted to food but could be spent on anything and anywhere Visa was accepted. The debit cards were credited with the first payment on November 18th, 2020 and the second payment on December 18th, 2020. The program continued with monthly credits through August 2021.
No monthly cash benefit.
Harvard Medical School
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Pregnancy
Pregnancies will be identified using the electronic health record, documented with a positive urine or blood pregnancy test, ultrasound, and/or diagnosis codes over the 10 months of the trial; because pregnancy without delivery is the primary outcome for our main analysis, the investigators will then determine whether each pregnancy did or did not result in a live childbirth delivered vaginally or via Cesarean section, which can occur after the 10 months of the trial
Time frame: 20 months
Miscarriage
Miscarriages presenting to the health care setting identified using diagnosis codes and documentation within clinical notes
Time frame: 20 months
Abortion
Procedural abortions and prescriptions for medical abortions, focusing specifically on induced abortions
Time frame: 20 months
Prenatal vitamin prescriptions prior to pregnancy
New use of prenatal vitamins, including multivitamins, as prescribed or documented in the electronic health record
Time frame: 10 months
Contraception
Utilization of long-acting reversible contraceptive methods (intrauterine devices or implants) and prescriptions for hormonal birth control methods (pill, patch, ring)
Time frame: 10 months
Number and timing of prenatal visits before delivery
Prenatal visits before delivery and initiation during first trimester
Time frame: 20 months
Composite of birth outcomes
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Following McConnell et al., this outcome is a composite of at least one of: low birth weight, preterm birth, small for gestational age, or perinatal mortality
Time frame: 20 months