Poverty, prenatal care, and infant health in Puerto Rico

Using data from a survey administered to a representative sample of mothers who gave birth in Puerto Rico in 1994-95, we investigate whether prenatal care and infant health outcomes are associated with family poverty and neighborhood poverty. The results show that infant health outcomes are unrelate...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biodemography and social biology 2001-03, Vol.48 (1-2), p.44-66
Main Authors: Oropesa, R.S., Landale, Nancy S., Dávila, Ana Luisa
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Birth
Child health
Female
Health care
Health Insurance
Humans
Infant
Infant Mortality
Infant Welfare
Infant, Low Birth Weight
Infant, Newborn
Infants
Logistic Models
Medical care
Multivariate Analysis
Neighbourhoods
Poverty
Pregnancy
Prenatal Care
Prenatal development
Public Assistance - utilization
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico - epidemiology
Science and technology
Sociology
Welfare Services
Womens Health Care
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Summary:Using data from a survey administered to a representative sample of mothers who gave birth in Puerto Rico in 1994-95, we investigate whether prenatal care and infant health outcomes are associated with family poverty and neighborhood poverty. The results show that infant health outcomes are unrelated to both family poverty and neighborhood poverty, despite the association of family poverty with the adequacy of prenatal care and the content of prenatal care. However, the poverty paradigm does receive some support using measures of participation in government programs that serve the low-income population. Women who rely on the government to fund their medical care are more likely than women who rely on private health insurance to have an infant death. They are also less likely to receive the highest levels of prenatal care. Nonetheless, targeted government programs can have an ameliorative impact. The analysis shows that participants in the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program are more likely than non-participants to receive superior levels of prenatal care and are less likely to have negative infant health outcomes.
ISSN:0037-766X
1948-5565
1948-5573
DOI:10.1080/19485565.2001.9989027