Estimating Social Gradients in Health for UK Mothers and Infants of Pakistani Origin: Do Latent Class Measures of Socioeconomic Position Help?

Abstract

The social gradients in health typically seen in the whole UK population are attenuated/non-existent in some minority ethnic groups. This study aims to compare latent class measures to conventional measures of socioeconomic position (SEP) in the estimation of social gradients in health for women and infants of Pakistani origin in the Born in Bradford cohort. We compare social gradients in birth outcomes, smoking during pregnancy, and maternal mental health using various measures of SEP (including latent class analysis groups) with multivariate regression models. Social gradients in maternal mental health and low birth weight were more clearly defined than before. Otherwise, the latent class SEP variables did not reveal social gradients in health that were not obvious before. This study adds to the evidence that there are weak, if any, social gradients in maternal and child health among UK women and infants of Pakistani origin when measured with these SEP variables.