A Scoping Review of Socioeconomic Inequalities in Distributions of Birth Outcomes: Through a Conceptual and Methodological Lens.
Matern Child Health J
; 24(2): 144-152, 2020 Feb.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-31894509
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION:
The extant literature has examined social inequalities in high-risk categories of birth weight and gestational age (i.e., low birth weight and preterm birth) with little attention given to their distributional nature. As such, a scoping review was conducted to understand how researchers have conceptualized and analyzed socioeconomic inequalities in entire distributions of these birth outcomes.METHODS:
Bibliographic databases were searched from their inception until August 2016 for articles from five similar, English-speaking, advanced capitalist democracies Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.RESULTS:
Twenty-one studies were included in the review, all of which provided rationales for examining socioeconomic inequalities in the entire distribution of birth weight. Yet, only three studies examined non-uniform associations of socioeconomic factors across the distribution of birth weight using conditional quantile regression, while the majority focused on mean birth weight using descriptive analysis or linear regression to analyze inequalities. Nevertheless, study results indicated that socioeconomic inequalities exist throughout the distribution of birth weight, extending beyond the high-risk category of low birth weight.DISCUSSION:
Although social inequalities in distributions of birth weight have been conceptualized, few studies have analytically engaged with this concept. As such, this review supports further investigation of distributional inequalities in birth outcomes using methodology which allows one to empirically quantify and explain differences in population risk distributions, rather than solely between infants born low birth weight or preterm birth, versus not.Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Bases de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Clase Social
/
Evaluación de Resultado en la Atención de Salud
/
Disparidades en Atención de Salud
Tipo de estudio:
Etiology_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
/
Systematic_reviews
Límite:
Female
/
Humans
/
Infant
/
Newborn
/
Pregnancy
País/Región como asunto:
America do norte
/
Europa
/
Oceania
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Matern Child Health J
Asunto de la revista:
PERINATOLOGIA
Año:
2020
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Canadá