Social Inequality in Birth Outcomes in Korea, 1995-2008
Journal of Korean Medical Science
;
: 25-35, 2013.
Article
in English
| WPRIM
| ID: wpr-188349
ABSTRACT
Social inequality in adverse birth outcomes has been demonstrated in several countries. The present study examined the separate and joint effects of parental education and work in order to investigate the causal pathways of social class effects on adverse birth outcomes in Korea. The occurrence of low birth weight, preterm births, and intrauterine growth retardation was examined among 7,766,065 births in Korea from 1995 to 2008. The effect of social inequality, as represented by parental education and work, was examined against adverse birth outcomes using multivariate logistic regression after controlling for other covariates. Parental education had the most significant and greatest effect on all three adverse outcomes, followed by parental work and employment, which had lesser effects. For adverse birth outcomes, the gap between educational levels increased steadily in Korea from 1995 to 2008. Throughout the analysis, the effect of maternal manual work on adverse birth outcomes was apparent in the study results. Given this evidence of social inequality in education and employment, social interventions should aim at more in-depth and distal determinants of health.
Full text:
Available
Index:
WPRIM (Western Pacific)
Main subject:
Parents
/
Social Class
/
Time Factors
/
Infant, Low Birth Weight
/
Logistic Models
/
Odds Ratio
/
Premature Birth
/
Educational Status
/
Employment
/
Republic of Korea
Type of study:
Etiology study
/
Prognostic study
/
Risk factors
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Infant, Newborn
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
English
Journal:
Journal of Korean Medical Science
Year:
2013
Type:
Article
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