Abstract
Evidence from randomised trials indicates that out-of-home day care has important effects in domains that are integral to the health of mothers and children. The evidence that day care results in cognitive gains is compelling. These effects and the long term effects in reducing crime and violence should suffice to put the question of day care provision high on the paediatric agenda. However, some important questions remain to be answered. Evidence from a randomised trial suggests that the effect of infant day care on infectious disease morbidity is not as great as would be expected on the basis of results from observational studies. However, the trial in question had some important methodological weaknesses. No trials to date have examined the effect of day care on otitis media. Data from observational studies on the effect of day care on injury occurrence are confliciting. Finally, studies in the US point to an important effect of out-of-home day care on maternal employment. The effect of day care on maternal employment and income inequality in Britain has yet to be examined.
Full text
PDFSelected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Brooks-Gunn J., McCormick M. C., Shapiro S., Benasich A., Black G. W. The effects of early education intervention on maternal employment, public assistance, and health insurance: the infant health and development program. Am J Public Health. 1994 Jun;84(6):924–931. doi: 10.2105/ajph.84.6.924. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Collet J. P., Burtin P., Kramer M. S., Floret D., Bossard N., Ducruet T. Type of day-care setting and risk of repeated infections. Pediatrics. 1994 Dec;94(6 Pt 2):997–999. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Gunn W. J., Pinsky P. F., Sacks J. J., Schonberger L. B. Injuries and poisonings in out-of-home child care and home care. Am J Dis Child. 1991 Jul;145(7):779–781. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Infante-Rivard C., Fernández A. Otitis media in children: frequency, risk factors, and research avenues. Epidemiol Rev. 1993;15(2):444–465. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.epirev.a036129. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Martin S. L., Ramey C. T., Ramey S. The prevention of intellectual impairment in children of impoverished families: findings of a randomized trial of educational day care. Am J Public Health. 1990 Jul;80(7):844–847. doi: 10.2105/ajph.80.7.844. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- McCormick M. C., Brooks-Gunn J., Shapiro S., Benasich A. A., Black G., Gross R. T. Health care use among young children in day care. Results in a randomized trial of early intervention. JAMA. 1991 May 1;265(17):2212–2217. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Rivara F. P., DiGuiseppi C., Thompson R. S., Calonge N. Risk of injury to children less than 5 years of age in day care versus home care settings. Pediatrics. 1989 Dec;84(6):1011–1016. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Schwartz B., Giebink G. S., Henderson F. W., Reichler M. R., Jereb J., Collet J. P. Respiratory infections in day care. Pediatrics. 1994 Dec;94(6 Pt 2):1018–1020. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Wasik B. H., Ramey C. T., Bryant D. M., Sparling J. J. A longitudinal study of two early intervention strategies: Project CARE. Child Dev. 1990 Dec;61(6):1682–1696. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]