To promote prenatal health and improve birth outcomes, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) developed the Strong Start for Mothers and Newborns initiative. The Strong Start initiative is assessing several enhanced prenatal care approaches, including home visiting. As part of the Strong Start initiative, CMS, in partnership with the…

Regression analysis and principal components analysis, which can be used to create perinatal risk profiles of neighborhoods within cities, were compared. Using census tract level low birthweight as the outcome variable, both methods identified factors identifying neighborhoods at risk. Both methods can be used to identify community characteristics…