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TL;DR
This cross-sectional study analyzed over 28 million US births and found that the odds of low birth weight increased by 4.2% among births to parous people during the months the 2021 Child Tax Credit advance payments were disbursed.
JAMA Network Open · 6 authors, 5 centres
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This cross-sectional study analyzed over 28 million US births and found that the odds of low birth weight increased by 4.2% among births to parous people during the months the 2021 Child Tax Credit advance payments were disbursed.
The central result was a significant 4.2% increase in the odds of LBW for exposed cohorts. Limitations include the lack of individual-level data on CTC receipt, timing of exposure, and potential confounding from unmeasured factors like post-pandemic fertility shifts. The findings suggest the economic benefit did not translate to a reduction in LBW and may be related to a theory of selection in utero, but causation cannot be established.