Health and economic outcomes of a universal early intervention for parents and children from birth to age five: evaluation of the Salut Programme using a natural experiment

Table 2 Characteristics of the participants in the longitudinal subsample

	Salut area^a		Non-Salut area^a
	pre ^b	post ^b	pre ^b	post ^b
Participants
Mothers, n	96	96	648	648
Children, n	107	100	736	674
Covariates
Mother’s age (years), M (SD)	26.1 (3.8)	31.9 (3.8)	26.8 (4.0)	32.7 (4.0)
Mother’s education, %
Compulsory school	6.1	9.0	10.5	8.0
Secondary school	65.7	57.0	51.0	46.7
Higher education	28.3	34.0	38.5	45.2
Health outcomes
*Pregnancy, delivery and around the child’s birth*
Smoking^c+ (yes), %	7.4	3.1	4.9	5.0
Pregnancy length+ (≥ 37 weeks), %	90.7	100.0	94.4	93.8
Caesarean section+ (yes), %	14.0	15.0	14.4	18.5
Birth weight++ (≥ 2 500 g), %	94.4	100.0	95.9	97.3
Birth length++ (cm), M (SD)	49.7 (3.7)	50.5 (2.0)	50.6 (2.7)	50.6 (2.3)
LGA++^d (yes), %	4.7	3.0	3.4	5.2
SGA++^e (yes), %	1.9	1.0	2.2	1.3
Apgar score++^f (≥ 7 points) at 1 min, %	95.3	100.0	93.5	96.0
at 5 min, %	98.1	100.0	98.2	98.7
at 10 min, %	99.0	99.0	99.7	99.8
Healthy child++^g (yes), %	81.3	87.0	78.1	82.0
Mother’s inpatient care+^h (days), M (SD)	2.1 (1.8)	2.2 (1.3)	2.3 (1.8)	2.1 (1.5)
*From birth to age 5*
Mother’s inpatient care^{j ++} (days)	0.7 (2.4)	1.9 (7.3)	1.5 (12.6)	1.7 (7.9)
Child’s inpatient care^{j +} (days)	2.9 (8.1)	1.0 (2.2)	3.1 (13.1)	2.9 (18.1)
Mother’s day patient visits^k++	0.0 (0.2	0.0 (0.2)	0.0 (0.2)	0.1 (0.2)
Child’s day patient visits^k+	0.1 (0.3)	0.1 (0.2)	0.1 (0.4)	0.2 (2.6)
*From age 1 to 5*
Mother’s specialized outpatient doctor’s visits^l+	1.9 (2.6)	4.3 (4.2)	1.9 (3.3)	4.8 (7.3)
Child’s specialized outpatient doctor’s visits^l++	2.7 (5.8)	4.9 (6.0)	2.4 (3.6)	6.3 (9.0)

M – mean; SD – Standard deviation. + Outcome maternal health; ++ Outcome child health
^a Salut area – Geographical area in Västerbotten county where the Salut Programme was implemented from 2006 and onwards; non-Salut area – remaining part of Västerbotten county.
^b Premeasure period 2000–2002; postmeasure period 2006–2008.
^c Smoking status at first antenatal visit, around pregnancy week 12.
^d Large for gestational age (LGA) – ≥2 SD above the reference population’s mean weight.
^e Small for gestational age (SGA) – ≤2 SD below the reference population’s mean weight.
^f A measure of the newborn’s physical condition 1, 5 and 10 min after birth, range 0–10 points.
^g A healthy child according to a paediatrician’s examination.
^h Mother’s inpatient care related to delivery.
ⁱ Early inpatient care for mother and child, respectively, during the first two months after the child’s birth (not related to delivery).
^j Cumulative duration of inpatient care for mother and child, respectively, over the child’s first five years, excluding care due to delivery complications.
^k Number of day patient visits for mother and child, respectively, over the child’s first five years, excluding care for the mother due to delivery complications.
^l Number of specialized outpatient doctor’s visits for mother and child, respectively, over the time when child is between one and five years old, excluding care for the mother due to delivery complications.

ISSN: 1478-7547