Peer-reviewed article
Prenatal care and child growth and schooling in four low- and medium-income countries
Harshpal Singh Sachdev, Reynaldo Martorell, Aryeh D. Stein, Bernardo Lessa Horta, Shane Anthony Norris et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This peer-reviewed study examines whether prenatal care visits improve birth outcomes and child development in low- and middle-income countries. The research looks at three key measures: birth weight, child height at 24 months, and school attendance. The study addresses a gap in evidence, as most previous research on prenatal care effectiveness comes from high-income countries. The analysis covers four low- and middle-income countries, though specific countries are not named in the abstract provided.
Key points
- Most evidence on prenatal care effectiveness comes from high-income countries
- Research examines both early-life outcomes (birth weight, height at 24 months) and longer-term outcomes (schooling)
- Study focuses on low- and middle-income country contexts
- Associations between prenatal care visits and multiple child outcomes are examined
Limitations
The abstract does not provide the actual findings, study design details, sample size, or which four countries were included. It is not possible to determine the strength of evidence or specific results from the information provided.
Abstract
The effectiveness of prenatal care for improving birth and subsequent child outcomes in low-income countries remains controversial, with much of the evidence to date coming from high-income countries and focused on early-life outcomes. We examined associations between prenatal care visits and birth weight, height-for-age at 24 months and attained schooling in four low- and middle-income countries.