Center for Health and Well-Being for the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and Interantional Affairs at Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
J Policy Anal Manage. 2015 Winter;34(1):208-42. doi: 10.1002/pam.21805.
Mounting evidence across different disciplines suggests that early-life conditions can have consequences on individual outcomes throughout the life cycle. Relative to other developed countries, the United States fares poorly on standard indicators of early-life health, and this disadvantage may have profound consequences not only for population well-being, but also for economic growth and competitiveness in a global economy. In this paper, we first discuss the research on the strength of the link between early-life health and adult outcomes, and then provide an evidence-based review of the effectiveness of existing U.S. policies targeting the early-life environment. We conclude that there is a robust and economically meaningful relationship between early-life conditions and well-being throughout the life cycle, as measured by adult health, educational attainment, labor market attachment, and other indicators of socioeconomic status. However, there is some variation in the degree to which current policies in the United States are effective in improving early-life conditions. Among existing programs, some of the most effective are the Special Supplemental Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), home visiting with nurse practitioners, and high-quality, center-based early-childhood care and education. In contrast, the evidence on other policies such as prenatal care and family leave is more mixed and limited.
越来越多的证据表明，生命早期的条件会对整个生命周期中的个人结果产生影响。与其他发达国家相比，美国在生命早期健康的标准指标上表现不佳，这种劣势不仅对人口福祉，而且对全球经济中的经济增长和竞争力都可能产生深远的影响。在本文中，我们首先讨论了生命早期健康与成人结果之间联系的强度的研究，然后对现有的针对生命早期环境的美国政策的有效性进行了基于证据的审查。我们的结论是，生命早期的条件与整个生命周期中的幸福感之间存在着强大且具有经济意义的关系，这些幸福感可以通过成人健康、教育程度、劳动力市场参与度以及其他社会经济地位指标来衡量。然而，美国现行政策在改善生命早期条件方面的有效性存在一定差异。在现有的项目中，一些最有效的项目是妇女、婴儿和儿童特别补充营养计划 (WIC)、护士执业家访以及高质量的、以中心为基础的幼儿保育和教育。相比之下，关于其他政策（如产前护理和家庭休假）的证据则更加复杂和有限。
