Preventing Infant Mortality in Georgia February 2019 | Page 6

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Healthcare Georgia Foundation
[Left: A Family Nurse Practitioner
discusses healthy nutrition with an
OB patient during a visit at the
Dougherty County (GA) Health
Department’s Centering Pregnancy
office.]
Photo: Albany Herald, Albany GA
PURPOSE
The purpose of the cross-site evaluation was to examine the overall impact of the TCOY Initiative in building program
capacity to monitor the delivery of intervention strategies and outcomes, and in improving the systematic provision
of intervention strategies and infant health outcomes related to preterm birth, low birth weight, and sleep-related
deaths.
METHODOLOGY
A longitudinal, mixed-methods process and outcome evaluation design to address the TCOY evaluation questions was
employed based on the following:
1. Program-level process indicators – Quantitative data acquired at the program-level were used to track
process indicators.
2. Program-level outcomes – Birth weight and gestational age at birth from SendSS were used to measure
rates of low birth weight and preterm birth. Cause of infant death data from infant mortality reports
were used to measure rates of sleep-related deaths.
3. County-level outcomes – Rates of low birth weight, preterm birth, and sleep-related deaths for the
counties in which the programs reside were obtained from Georgia Online Analytical Statistical Information
System (OASIS) for comparative purposes.
4. Key informant interviews were conducted with all staff who had any programmatic responsibility for
the grantee intervention (e.g., program directors, nursing staff, outreach workers, case managers, women’s
health coordinators, lactation consultants) to assess experiences, facilitators, and barriers to planned
intervention activities and facilitators and barriers to the interventions.
5. Focus groups were held with intervention participants in Years Two and Three to understand participants’
knowledge and awareness of the interventions as well as their utilization, satisfaction, and perception of
value related of value related to the intervention services.