Henderson J W
Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798.
Health Care Financ Rev. 1994 Summer;15(4):21-32.
This study uses hospital records for 7,000 births in McLennan County, Texas, during the period June 1987-July 1989 to examine the association between prenatal care and birth outcome and the implications for hospital costs of newborn infants. After controlling for a variety of maternal and birth factors, a significant relationship between prenatal care and birth outcome remained. Females who failed to receive prenatal care were almost three times as likely to have a low-birth-weight infant (weighing less than 2,500 grams) than females who did. Using an ordinary least squares (OLS) estimating equation (R2 = .24), the net expected hospital cost savings for females who received prenatal care was over $1,000.
本研究使用了得克萨斯州麦克伦南县1987年6月至1989年7月期间7000例分娩的医院记录，以检验产前护理与分娩结果之间的关联以及对新生儿住院费用的影响。在控制了各种产妇和分娩因素后，产前护理与分娩结果之间仍存在显著关系。未接受产前护理的女性生出低体重婴儿（体重不足2500克）的可能性几乎是接受产前护理女性的三倍。使用普通最小二乘法（OLS）估计方程（R2 = 0.24），接受产前护理的女性预期节省的住院费用净额超过1000美元。
