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The data in the Historical Demographic Data of Southeastern Europe series derive primarily from the ethnographic and archival research of Joel M. Halpern, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, in southeastern Europe from 1953 to 2006. The series is comprised of historical demographic data from several towns and villages in the countries of Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia, all of which are former constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The data provide insight into the shift from agricultural to industrial production, as well as the more general processes of urbanization occurring in the last days of the Yugoslav state. With an expansive timeframe ranging from 1818 to 2006, the series also contains a wide cross-section of demographic data types. These include, but are not limited to, population censuses, tax records, agricultural and landholding data, birth records, death records, marriage and engagement records, and migration information.

This component of the series focuses exclusively on the Serbian village of Orasac and is composed of 64 datasets. These data record a variety of demographic and economic information between the years of 1824 and 1975. General population information at the individual level is available in official census records from 1863, 1884, 1948, 1953, and 1961, and from population register records for the years of 1928, 1966, and 1975. Census data at the household level is also available for the years of 1863, 1928, 1948, 1953, and 1961. These data are followed by detailed records of engagement and marriage. Many of these data were obtained through the courtesy of village and county officials. Priest book records from 1851 through 1966, as well as death records from 1863 to 1976 and tombstone records from 1975, are also available. Information regarding migrants and emigrants was obtained from the village council for the years of 1946 through 1975. Lastly, the data provide economic and financial information, including records of individual landholdings (for the years of 1863, 1952, 1966, and 1975), records of government taxation at the individual or household level (for 1813 through 1840, as well as for 1952), and livestock censuses (at both the individual and household level for the years of 1824 and 1825, and only at the individual level for the years of 1833 and 1834).

Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation-Strong Start (MIHOPE-Strong Start) was a large-scale evaluation that rigorously tested the effectiveness of evidence-based home visiting in improving birth and health outcomes during pregnancy and in the year after birth. Local programs included in the study's analysis implemented one of two evidence-based models: Healthy Families America (HFA) or Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP). These models were chosen because earlier evaluations found some evidence of their having positive impacts on birth outcomes.

The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) partnered with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to sponsor the study. MIHOPE-Strong Start was part of the CMMI's Strong Start for Mothers and Newborns Initiative, which evaluated whether enhanced, nonmedical prenatal interventions, when provided in addition to routine medical care, have the potential to improve birth outcomes and reduce health care costs for women enrolled in Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Under contract with OPRE, MDRC conducted MIHOPE-Strong Start in collaboration with James Bell Associates, Johns Hopkins University, Mathematica, and New York University.

The analysis for MIHOPE-Strong Start included 2,899 women and 66 local programs (37 HFA and 29 NFP programs) operating across 17 states: California, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Washington, and Wisconsin. Women were eligible for MIHOPE-Strong Start if they were pregnant and at least 8 weeks from their due date.

The MIHOPE-Strong Start analysis included a subset of families and local programs that were recruited for MIHOPE, the national evaluation of the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program. Specifically, the MIHOPE-Strong Start impact analysis included information on 46 local home visiting programs and 1,845 families that were initially recruited for MIHOPE but met the MIHOPE-Strong Start eligibility criteria. An important distinction between MIHOPE-Strong Start and MIHOPE is that MIHOPE included only programs receiving MIECHV funding, while MIHOPE-Strong Start included both MIECHV and non-MIECHV-funded programs.

In both studies, families were randomly assigned either to an evidence-based home visiting program or to a control group who was given information on other services available in the community. The random assignment design was intended to create program and control groups that were similar when women entered the study, so that systematic differences in the outcomes of interest observed between the two groups can be attributed to the home visiting services rather than to the preexisting characteristics of the women.