Center-based preschool programs: systematic review of child and adult health outcomes

Abstract

While early childhood development interventions (ECDIs) have the potential to bring about wide-ranging societal benefits in both the short and the long term (Bennett and Tayler, 2006; Engle et al., 2007; Heckman and Masterov, 2004), less is known about the potential for center based ECDIs to improve the health of children and adults. Many governments have invested in nutrition and health services as part of a range of comprehensive services in ECDIs (Currie and Thomas, 1995; Goodson et al., 2000; Kropp et al., 2001), with an expectation that they will improve child health outcomes. The focus of most of the evidence of health effects of ECDIs is on the short-term increased risk of infectious diseases and injury (Ball et al., 2002; Lu et al., 2004; Rivara et al., 1989) from center-based children’s services, or a small range of health outcomes examined in infant home visiting programs (Elkan et al., 2000; Gomby, 1999). The health benefits associated with ECDIs are potentially broader in scope than infectious diseases and injury and may extend beyond the preschool years. In addition to the provision of health services, ECDIs that improve educational and social outcomes, lessening the impacts of social disadvantage, may reduce the shorter- and longer-term health differences known to be associated with growing up in poorer social conditions (Galobardes, Lynch, and Davey Smith, 2004).