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Infancy

Infancy—the period of life from birth to age 1—is associated with a unique set of public policy issues related to babies' health, development, and welfare. RAND's research on infants spans a wide range of topics for this brief but important period of life, including infant mortality, low birth weight, neonatal care, immunizations, breastfeeding and feeding practices, and cognitive development.

Dissertation
The Role of a State Public Health Initiative in Shaping Provider Knowledge, Beliefs and Practices: A Mixed Methods Study of a Cytomegalovirus Prevention Program
Explores the impact of Utah's public health education intervention to increase pregnancy care provider awareness of congenital cytomegalovirus preventative hygiene measures, knowledge, and counseling behaviors.
Aug 21, 2023
Journal Article
Home Visiting for First-Time Parents: Community Innovation
We outline lessons from the First Born home visiting program for other universal programs, including the pros and cons of universal services, the expectation that universal programs will have population-level impact, and barriers to innovation.
May 25, 2023
Journal Article
Topic Brief: Infantile Epilepsy
The goal of the topic brief is to identify key management strategies for infantile epilepsy; provide an overview of clinical practice guidelines, systematic reviews, and randomized controlled trials that assess infantile epilepsy; and highlight evidence gaps.
Oct 24, 2022
Journal Article
An Evidence Map of Treatments for Infantile Epilepsy
We conducted a scoping review of interventions for management of epilepsy among infants and display our results in an evidence map.
Oct 24, 2022
Periodical
RAND Review: May-June 2022
The cover story explores what prison-based programs are available to help incarcerated parents and their children. Another feature examines ways to help social media users navigate the online extremist ecosystem.
May 11, 2022
Journal Article
Association of Individual and Community Factors With Hepatitis C Infections Among Pregnant People and Newborns
US hepatitis C viral infections among pregnant women grew fastest among White and American Indian/Alaska Native people without a 4-year degree.
Mar 29, 2022
Journal Article
Tackling Persistent and Large Disparities in Birth Outcomes in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
The IMPreSIv database allowed us to summarize the maternal health, behavioral, and contextual factors associated with birth outcomes and describe the participation rates in available medical and community setting interventions in Allegheny County.
Jan 5, 2022
Periodical
RAND Review: January-February 2022
The cover story highlights the risks of geoengineering -- the large-scale manipulation of environmental processes to control climate. The Q&A with Jacqueline Burns sheds light on how her military experience informs her approach to research and analysis.
Jan 4, 2022
Journal Article
Standardizing the Clinical Definition of Opioid Withdrawal in the Neonate
This paper addresses challenges in clinical care, quality improvement, research, and public policy for prenatally opioid-exposed neonates by standardizing the clinical definition of opioid withdrawal.
Jan 4, 2022
Journal Article
A Comparison of Approaches to Identify Live Births Using the Medicaid Analytic eXtract
This study described and validated five approaches to identifying births using Medicaid data.
Nov 3, 2021
Journal Article
In Nigeria, Stillbirths And Newborn Deaths Increased During The COVID-19 Pandemic
COVID-19 increased the number of stillbirths and newborn deaths in Nigeria.
Nov 3, 2021
Blog
Nuclear Deterrence, COVID-19 and Infant Deaths, Criminal Justice Reform: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on why the United States doesn’t need more nuclear weapons, increased infant deaths during the pandemic, preventing veteran suicide, and more.
Oct 22, 2021
Journal Article
Association of Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome and Infant Foster Care Entry
Researchers examined the association of county rates of neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS) and county-level characteristics with infant foster care entries. One in every ten diagnosed NOWS births was associated with a 41 percent higher rate of infant foster care entry.
Oct 20, 2021
Journal Article
Informing the Development of a Standardized Clinical Definition of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome: Protocol for a Modified-Delphi Expert Panel
The goal of this paper is to describe a protocol for a systematic expert panel process to inform the development of a clinical definition of neonatal abstinence syndrome.
Jul 23, 2021
Blog
Pandemic-Era Parties, China's Global Influence, Reducing Infant Mortality: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on assessing the risk of small gatherings during the pandemic, China's ability to exert influence around the world, using big data to help reduce infant mortality, and more.
Jul 2, 2021
Essay
Reducing Disparities in Infant Mortality: Using Big Data to Help Babies at Risk
Black babies in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania—and across America—face much higher mortality rates than white babies. Researchers pulled together thousands of data points on more than 150,000 births to better predict who is at risk and how to help them.
Jul 1, 2021
Periodical
RAND Review: July-August 2021
One feature highlights how researchers apply an equity lens to projects on environmental racism, incarcerated parents, and the lives of Black service members; a second describes interventions to address disparities in infant mortality rates.
Jul 1, 2021
Report
Informing the Development of Standardized Clinical Definitions of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome and Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome: Results of Two Modified-Delphi Expert Panels
The authors describe the results of two modified-Delphi expert panels used to inform the work of a federal steering committee on the development of clinical definitions of neonatal abstinence syndrome and neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome.
May 3, 2021
Journal Article
Care Management Reduced Infant Mortality for Medicaid Managed Care Enrollees in Ohio
The Ohio Department of Medicaid introduced requirements to be delivered by Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs). This study evaluated the impact of care management on reducing infant mortality in the largest Medicaid MCO in Ohio.
Feb 12, 2021
Research Brief
Using an Innovative Database and Machine Learning to Predict and Reduce Infant Mortality
Researchers created a unique database linking medical, social, and demographic information, then used machine learning techniques to evaluate risk of infant mortality and develop intervention recommendations to reduce each infant's risk of mortality
Feb 4, 2021

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RAND Topic:
Infants

Topic Synonyms:
Babies;
Baby;
Infancy

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