Do women living in a deprived neighborhood have higher maternity care costs and worse pregnancy outcomes? A retrospective population-based study.

BACKGROUND: Living in a deprived neighborhood is associated with poorer health, due to factors such as lower socio-economic status and an adverse lifestyle. There is little insight into whether living in deprived neighborhood is associated with adverse maternity care outcomes and maternity health care costs. We expect women in a deprived neighborhood to experience a more complicated pregnancy, with more secondary obstetric care (as opposed to primary midwifery care) and higher maternity care costs. This study aimed to answer the following research question: to what extent are moment of referral from primary to secondary care, mode of delivery, (extreme or very) preterm delivery and maternity care costs associated with neighborhood deprivation? METHODS: This retrospective cohort study used a national Dutch database with healthcare claims processed by health insurers. All pregnancies that started in 2018 were included. The moment of referral from primary to secondary care, mode of delivery, (extreme or very) preterm delivery and maternity care costs were compared between women in deprived and non-deprived neighborhoods. We reported descriptive statistics, and results of ordinal logistic, multinomial and linear regressions to assess whether differences between the two groups exist. RESULTS: Women in deprived neighborhoods had higher odds of being referred from primary to secondary care during pregnancy (adjusted OR 1.49, 95%CI 1.41-1.57) and to start their pregnancy in secondary care (adjusted OR 1.55, 95%CI 1.44-1.66). Furthermore, women in deprived neighborhoods had lower odds of assisted delivery than women in non-deprived neighborhoods (adjusted OR 0.73, 95%CI 0.66-0.80), and they had higher odds of a cesarean section (adjusted OR 1.19, 95%CI 1.13-1.25). On average, women in a deprived neighborhood had higher maternity care costs worth 156 euros (95%CI 104-208). CONCLUSION: This study showed that living in a deprived neighborhood is associated with more intensive maternal care and higher maternal care costs in the Netherlands. These findings support the needs for greater attention to socio-economic factors in maternity care in the Netherlands.

Adverse Maternal and Infant Outcomes of Women Who Differ in Smoking Status: E-Cigarette and Tobacco Cigarette Users.

The electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) became commercially available around 2004, yet the characteristics of pregnant women who use these devices and their effects on maternal and infant health remain largely unknown. This study aimed to investigate maternal characteristics and pregnancy outcomes according to maternal smoking status. We conducted a cross-sectional study of Dutch women with reported pregnancies between February 2019 and May 2022, using an online questionnaire to collect data on smoking status and demographic, lifestyle, pregnancy, and infant characteristics. Smoking status is compared among non-smokers, tobacco cigarette users, e-cigarette users, and dual users (tobacco and e-cigarette). We report descriptive statistics and calculate differences in smoking status between women with the chi-square or Fisher (Freeman-Halton) test. Of the 1937 included women, 88.1% were non-smokers, 10.8% were tobacco cigarette users, 0.5% were e-cigarette users, and 0.6% were dual users. Compared with tobacco users, e-cigarette users more often reported higher education, having a partner, primiparity, and miscarriages. Notably, women who used e-cigarettes more often had small infants for gestational age. Despite including few women in the e-cigarette subgroup, these exploratory results indicate the need for more research to examine the impact of e-cigarettes on pregnancy outcomes.