National Healthy Start Evaluation

In February 2020, a national evaluation of the Healthy Start program was completed which aimed to:

• describe HS participants, allowing us to assess whether the program serves specific, intended populations
• identify factors among HS participants that are associated with a higher risk of adverse outcomes in order to inform targeted efforts of the program
• compare maternal and infant health outcomes among the HS population to those among socio-demographically similar non-participants
• compare participant outcomes to program targets

This evaluation used three different data sources from 2017:

• participant-level program data for HS participants collected via the Healthy Start Monitoring and Evaluation Data (HSMED) system
• live birth and infant death data from state vital records offices
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) data

This was the first attempt to conduct a matched analysis for Healthy Start conducted on a multi-state level, representing a successful collaboration of multiple national and local partners. The Healthy Start Evaluation Final Report (February 2020) is provided below. This document details the evaluation’s methodology, results, limitations, and conclusions/recommendations. The Summary of the 2017 National Healthy Start Evaluation highlights a number of key findings from the Final Report’s evaluation analysis, and briefly describes some of the limitations and challenges.