Pathways of neighbourhood-level socio-economic determinants of adverse birth outcomes

Gang Meng,Mary E Thompson,G Brent Hall

doi:10.1186/1476-072x-12-32

Gang Meng, Mary E Thompson + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/1476-072x-12-32

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Abstract

BackgroundAlthough socio-economic factors have been identified as one of the most important groups of neighbourhood-level risks affecting birth outcomes, uncertainties still exist concerning the pathways through which they are transferred to individual risk factors. This poses a challenge for setting priorities and developing appropriate community-oriented public health interventions and planning guidelines to reduce the level of adverse birth outcomes.MethodThis study examines potential direct and mediated pathways through which neighbourhood-level socio-economic determinants exert their impacts on adverse birth outcomes. Two hypothesized models, namely the materialist and psycho-social models, and their corresponding pathways are tested using a binary-outcome multilevel mediation analysis. Live birth data, including adverse birth outcomes and person-level exposure variables, were obtained from three public health units in the province of Ontario, Canada. Corresponding neighbourhood-level socio-economic, psycho-social and living condition variables were extracted or constructed from the 2001 Canadian Census and the first three cycles (2001, 2003, and 2005) of the Canadian Community Health Surveys.ResultsNeighbourhood-level socio-economic-related risks are found to have direct effects on low birth weight and preterm birth. In addition, 20-30% of the total effects are contributed by indirect effects mediated through person-level risks. There is evidence of four person-level pathways, namely through individual socio-economic status, psycho-social stress, maternal health, and health behaviours, with all being simultaneously at work. Psycho-social pathways and buffering social capital-related variables are found to have more impact on low birth weight than on preterm birth.ConclusionThe evidence supports both the materialist and psycho-social conceptualizations and the pathways that describe them, although the magnitude of the former is greater than the latter.

Highlights

Socio-economic factors have been identified as one of the most important groups of neighbourhood-level risks affecting birth outcomes, uncertainties still exist concerning the pathways through which they are transferred to individual risk factors
Many of the identified person-level risk variables for maternal health, behaviour, social and financial support, psycho-social, and genetic aspects shown in Table 3 are the same for low birth weight (LBW) and preterm birth (PTB), with some minor variations
To identify these unique aspects and to control for multicollinearity, orthogonal risk factors were constructed separately for LBW and PTB based on their corresponding identified person-level risk variables

Summary

Introduction

Socio-economic factors have been identified as one of the most important groups of neighbourhood-level risks affecting birth outcomes, uncertainties still exist concerning the pathways through which they are transferred to individual risk factors This poses a challenge for setting priorities and developing appropriate community-oriented public health interventions and planning guidelines to reduce the level of adverse birth outcomes. Despite this knowledge, there is a general lack of understanding of the mechanisms that transfer neighbourhoodlevel social and environmental conditions to individual instances of adverse birth outcomes. There is a general lack of understanding of the mechanisms that transfer neighbourhoodlevel social and environmental conditions to individual instances of adverse birth outcomes This poses a challenge for setting priorities and developing appropriate public health programs and policies, especially for community health interventions. Two models can be used to disentangle these complex processes

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