Discussion
HYPERTENSION, TYPE 2 DIABETES, HEART DISEASE
This preregistered study found that 3 years of monthly, unconditional cash transfers for families experiencing poverty did not improve maternal reports of children’s health, sleep, or health care utilization. However, the cash gifts did lead to increased reported produce consumption at age 2 years. Previous work has found that low-income mothers tend to perceive fresh produce as expensive and inaccessibleBy design, this sample consisted of infants who did not require neonatal intensive care at birth, of whom the vast majority were born at-term, and of normal birth weight. It is therefore unsurprising that most mothers rated their children as having excellent or very good health, with rates of health conditions or disabilities aligned with national averages. Most studies linking poverty reduction to children’s health do not utilize such exclusionary criteria (eg, Strully et alRates of emergency medical use among this sample were higher than the national average for low-income mothers: 11% of children living in poverty reported at least 2 ED visits in 2019, and 14% reported at least 2 urgent care visits that same year.Structural barriers might interfere with preventive care use,We have previously reported that the monthly cash gifts resulted in greater parental investments in their children, both by increasing expenditures on child-focused goods (eg, books and toys) and increasing parental time spent engaged in developmentally supportive activities (eg, reading and playing).The effects of a poverty reduction intervention on children’s health may not emerge until later in development. Many illnesses associated with childhood poverty, such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease, tend to emerge in adolescence or adulthood.An important strength of this study is its large sample, experimental design, low rates of attrition, and preregistered analysis, which represents an improvement over prior studies that have examined associations between income and children’s health, sleep, and nutrition in cross-sectional or observational studies. Additionally, as both groups received a monthly cash gift, there was no confounding between receipt of the cash gifts and either possession of a debit card or receipt of communication from the research team.