SUPPORTING FAMILIES OF INFANTS IN THE NEONATAL INTENSIVE CARE UNIT TO ACCESS SUPPLEMENTAL SECURITY INCOME

Harvard School Of Public Health, Boston MA

Investigators

Abstract

Preterm birth is the leading cause of child mortality, and affects 10% of infants in the United States. In addition to resulting in increased morbidity and developmental delays, it also causes massive economic losses at both the individual and societal levels. Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a federal program designed to provide financial support to families of preterm infants, particularly while the infant is still in the hospital. However, due to several bottlenecks related to the complexity of the application for SSI and unfortunate timing of when the application must be submitted, application for this program is likely subject to large behavioral barriers including present bias and a lack of salience. This project proposes to 1) be the first to collect data on the fraction of eligible families of preterm infants that fail to apply for SSI, 2) document the barriers and facilitators to application, 3) design an intervention to increase application and a protocol for a randomized control trial (RCT) to test it, and 4) conduct initial pilot activities to refine the logistics and acceptability of the intervention/RCT. Increasing the utilization of SSI has the potential to decrease the impoverishing effects of having a preterm infant and ultimately to decrease disparities in outcomes of preterm infants by supporting families most in need.