Evaluating the relationship between conditional cash transfer programme on preterm births: a retrospective longitudinal study using the 100 million Brazilian cohort.

BACKGROUND: Preterm births increase mortality and morbidity during childhood and later life, which is closely associated with poverty and the quality of prenatal care. Therefore, income redistribution and poverty reduction initiatives may be valuable in preventing this outcome. We assessed whether receipt of the Brazilian conditional cash transfer programme - Bolsa Familia Programme, the largest in the world - reduces the occurrence of preterm births, including their severity categories, and explored how this association differs according to prenatal care and the quality of Bolsa Familia Programme management. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was performed involving the first live singleton births to mothersenrolled in the 100 Million Brazilian Cohort from 2004 to 2015, who had at least one child before cohort enrollment. Only the first birth during the cohort period was included, but born from 2012 onward. A deterministic linkage with the Bolsa Familia Programme payroll dataset and a similarity linkage with the Brazilian Live Birth Information System were performed. The exposed group consisted of newborns to mothers who received Bolsa Familia from conception to delivery. Our outcomes were infants born with a gestational age < 37 weeks: (i) all preterm births, (ii) moderate-to-late (32-36), (iii) severe (28-31), and (iv) extreme (< 28) preterm births compared to at-term newborns. We combined propensity score-based methods and weighted logistic regressions to compare newborns to mothers who did and did not receive Bolsa Familia, controlling for socioeconomic conditions. We also estimated these effects separately, according to the adequacy of prenatal care and the index of quality of Bolsa Familia Programme management. RESULTS: 1,031,053 infants were analyzed; 65.9% of the mothers were beneficiaries. Bolsa Familia Programme was not associated with all sets of preterm births, moderate-to-late, and severe preterm births, but was associated with a reduction in extreme preterm births (weighted OR: 0.69; 95%CI: 0.63-0.76). This reduction can also be observed among mothers receiving adequate prenatal care (weighted OR: 0.66; 95%CI: 0.59-0.74) and living in better Bolsa Familia management municipalities (weighted OR: 0.56; 95%CI: 0.43-0.74). CONCLUSIONS: An income transfer programme for pregnant women of low-socioeconomic status, conditional to attending prenatal care appointments, has been associated with a reduction in extremely preterm births. These programmes could be essential in achieving Sustainable Development Goals.

Risk factors for hospital admission of Brazilian children with non-rotavirus diarrhoea: a case control-study.

BACKGROUND: Rotavirus has been the leading cause of severe cases of acute diarrhoea (AD) among children worldwide; however, in the same areas, a large reduction in AD related to rotavirus has been observed after the introduction of the rotavirus vaccine. In Brazil, where there is a high rotavirus vaccine coverage, AD caused by pathogens other than rotavirus is still a frequent cause of outpatient visits and hospitalisations among children under 5 years. METHODS: A hospital-based case-control study enrolled children aged 4 to 24 months admitted to 10 hospitals from all five Brazilian Regions. Cases (n=1178) were children admitted with diarrhoea who tested negative for rotavirus in a stool sample. Controls (n=2515) were children admitted without diarrhoea, frequency matched to cases by sex and age group. We estimated odds ratios using logistic regression, in a hierarchical approach according to a previously defined conceptual framework. Population-attributable fractions (PAF) were estimated for each variable, each block and for all significant variables in the latter model adjusted. RESULTS: The factors studied accounted for 41% of the non-rotavirus AD hospital admissions and the main risk factors included lack of adequate excreta disposal (PAF=12%), untreated drinking water (PAF=11%) and a history of previous hospitalization due to AD (PAF=21%). Low socio-economic conditions, no public water supply, crowding and low weight-for-age made smaller contributions. CONCLUSIONS: These findings further our knowledge of risk factors associated with severe AD in the post-rotavirus vaccination era. We recommend further increase in coverage of basic sanitation, improvements in water quality and further expansion of primary healthcare coverage to reduce the occurrence of non-rotavirus severe diarrhoea and subsequent hospitalization of Brazilian children.