Transitioning an In-Person Survey of Older Adults to Multi-Mode Data Collection.

OBJECTIVES: The first three rounds of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) were in-person. Preparing for Round Four (R4), NSHAP began developing ways to collect complex questionnaire and biomeasure data remotely. R4 was scheduled to begin in 2020, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, NSHAP delayed R4 data collection and instead conducted a study on respondents' experiences during the pandemic, as well as pretests to strengthen NSHAP's remote data collection capability. This paper describes the methodology, results, and lessons learned from these efforts which were undertaken as a bridge between NSHAP's all in-person past and multimode future. METHODS: The Covid-19 Study was a multimode survey of NSHAP respondents to assess the impact of the pandemic. The multimode approach allowed evaluation of the feasibility of using different modes of data collection with older adults. NSHAP adapted its in-person questionnaire for phone and web administration and conducted pretests of the full phone questionnaire and sections of the web questionnaire. The project developed and tested a "BioBox," a kit containing all the supplies and instructions for respondents to self-collect biomeasures remotely. The BioBox was tested through an in-lab and in-home pilot, followed by two larger-scale pretests. RESULTS: The Covid-19 Study and pretests achieved NSHAP respondent participation in remote questionnaire and biomeasure collection, despite being accustomed to fully in-person data collection. DISCUSSION: Our findings and experiences will inform the collection of NSHAP data in future rounds and could inform other panel studies of older adults considering multimode data collection.

Neonatal outcomes and mental illness, substance abuse, and intentional injury during pregnancy.

Mental illness (MI), substance abuse (SA), and intentional injury (II) are known individual risk factors for adverse pregnancy outcomes. Their combined association with preterm birth (PTB) and low birth weight (LBW) remains relatively unexplored. We examined hospital utilization for the co-occurrence of II and MI or SA in pregnant women in Massachusetts and assessed their interactive association with PTB and LBW. This retrospective cohort study used ICD-9 and E-codes reported on linked birth and hospital utilization data to identify MI, SA, and II diagnoses during pregnancy for 176,845 Massachusetts resident women who delivered during 2002-2004. Adjusted odds ratios (OR) for the independent and joint associations of MI, SA, and II on PTB and LBW were calculated. Two thousand two hundred and eight women (1.6%) had a prenatal MI visit, 834 (0.5%) a prenatal SA visit, and 847 (0.5%) a prenatal II visit. Among them 163 women had MI and II visits and 69 had SA and II visits. SA, MI, and II were all significant predictors of LBW and PTB. Women with both SA and II had higher odds of PTB (OR 2.7 95% CI 1.3-5.7) and LBW (OR 5.3 95% CI 3.9-7.3) than women with neither diagnosis. Prenatal MI, SA, and II are risk factors for LBW and PTB. Women with SA and II co-diagnoses have greater risk of LBW and PTB than women with neither diagnosis. Screening, timely diagnosis, and treatment of women with co-occurring morbidities, particularly II and SA, should be incorporated into reproductive and perinatal health programs.

Ongoing Refinement and Innovation in the Data Collection Protocols of the Third Round of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project.

OBJECTIVES: The third round (R3) of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, a nationally representative, longitudinal survey of community-residing older adults, consisted of 4,777 in-person interviews and 6,100 completed visits to households to identify newly eligible respondents. It revisited respondents from the first rounds (Cohort 1), born in the years 1920 through 1947, and added new respondents (Cohort 2) born in the years 1948 through 1965. Coresidential romantic partners of both cohorts were also eligible. Data collection included in-person questionnaires, up to 11 biomeasures, and a self-administered, postinterview paper questionnaire. METHODS: Questionnaire domains included social network and social support, elder mistreatment, physical health, cognitive function, romantic partners and sexuality, fertility and menopause, mental health, and employment and finances. Biomeasure collection included height, weight, waist circumference, blood pressure and heart rate, timed walk, balance, chair stands, smell, saliva passive drool in a tube (cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone, estradiol, progesterone, testosterone), dried blood spots (C-reactive protein, Epstein-Barr virus antibodies, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, hemoglobin, glycosylated hemoglobin [HbA1c], total cholesterol), and accelerometry (sleep patterns and physical activity). A brief questionnaire also collected data on respondents who were deceased or in too poor health to participate. RESULTS: Measures such as response and cooperation rates are provided to evaluate the design and implementation. DISCUSSION: This article describes innovation in the development and implementation of R3, the recruitment of a new cohort of respondents, and fidelity to prior rounds' study design and data collection procedures.

A review of prenatal home-visiting effectiveness for improving birth outcomes.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effectiveness of prenatal home visiting for improving prenatal care utilization and preventing preterm birth and low birth weight. DATA SOURCES: Medline, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, PsycINFO, and Social Work Abstract databases were searched for articles that examined prenatal home-visiting and prenatal care utilization or neonatal outcomes, with additional ascendancy and descendancy searches. Listservs were also used to identify unpublished evaluations. STUDY SELECTION: Quantitative studies meeting the following criteria were included in the analyses: published between 1985 and 2009, published in English, reported providing prenatal home visiting, and reported on prenatal care utilization or a neonatal outcome. DATA EXTRACTION: Study characteristics and findings related to prenatal care utilization, gestational age, and birth weight were abstracted independently by at least two authors. Study quality was assessed across five domains. DATA SYNTHESIS: The search yielded 28 studies comparing outcomes for women who did and did not receive prenatal home visiting, with 14 (59%) using an RCT design. Five (17%) studies reporting on prenatal care utilization found a statistically significant improvement in use of prenatal care for women with home visiting. Of 24 studies reporting an effect on birth outcomes, five (21%) found a significant positive effect on gestational age, and seven of 17 (41%) found a significant positive effect on birth weight. CONCLUSIONS: More evidence suggests that prenatal home visiting may improve the use of prenatal care, whereas less evidence exists that it improves neonatal birth weight or gestational age. These findings have implications for implementing Title II of the Affordable Care Act.