Birth Weight and Income: Interactions across Generations

Conley, Dalton; Bennett, Neil G.

doi:10.2307/3090189

Cited by 93 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…The pattern of profile of baby weight by mother's occupation brought to light equivalent average change of the baby weights. Occupation in the analysis was not significant confirming Conley & Bennett (2000) findings that no occupational income or education has effects on the probability of low birth weight among infants. The profile of baby weights by mother's parity group showed that mothers who gave birth up to two-three times had the best mean change in weights of babies compared to those who gave birth once as well as those who had four -five number of births which was the least.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 57%

Profiling the Determinants of Baby Weights in Bolgatanga Municipality of Ghana

Akansuke

Luguterah

Nyadanu

et al. 2015

JBLS

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Introduction:Birth weights and subsequent weights (weight-for-age of babies) have been found to play a vital role in early childhood development and have profound effect on later lives of children. The weight-for-age of babies, as a measure of child's growth, was found in several literatures as one of the key determinants of under-five mortality. This paper therefore deemed it crucial to explore how prognostic factors are influencing infants' growth in the weights of babies in Ghana using Bolgatanga municipality in the Upper East region of Ghana as case study. Method:The post-natal records of three hundred (300) nursing mothers were retrospectively followed from January to December 2013 in the seven health facilities of the municipality for the study. Inclusion criterion was used to recruit two hundred and thirty five (235) qualified subjects. The weight-for-age of babies and socio-demographics of the babies and the mothers were recorded. The determinants of infant growth in the weights of the babies were profiled. Results:The study disclosed that the mean birth weight in both sexes, 2.71kg for males and 2.74kg for females, were higher than the standard normal birth weights of 2.50kg by WHO. The multivariate analysis of variance showed a nonlinear infants growth profile in the weights of babies during their first developmental year. The profile of the determinants showed that factors such as educational status and age of mother, breastfeeding type and sex of baby did not differ in the infants' weights by these groups even-though higher education and nonexclusive breastfeeding had positive effects. However, maternal factors such as: religious affiliations (socio-cultural practices), occupation, parity, injection as at last type of family planning practiced by nursing mothers were significant, highlighting the effect of these maternal socio-demographics and biological factors on infant growth and child survival. Conclusion:The profiles of the effects of the maternal determinants on the weights of babies considered in this study established that infant growth is non-linear. It could also be stated on the basis of the profile analysis that, the weights of babies in this municipality could be modeled for predictions using the maternal determinants such as occupation, parity group, injectable family planning method, breastfeeding type, educational level and socio-cultural practices (religion). The profile analysis of the effects of the maternal socio-demographics and biological factors on infant weights established that the infant's growth can be improved significantly by the nursing mothers, health service providers and the government if efforts are made to improve and/or modify the significant health indicators.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 57%

Profiling the Determinants of Baby Weights in Bolgatanga Municipality of Ghana

Akansuke

Luguterah

Nyadanu

et al. 2015

JBLS

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“…Others have suggested that the influence of birth weight may be graded by other indicators of family background and experiences (as noted in Hack et al, 1995). For example, Conley and Bennett (2001) reported mixed evidence that birth weight and income interact (see also Conley et al, 2007). We found few (and no robust) indications that the influence of birth weight on both cognitive development and timely high school completion varies according to family income early in children's lives, the early home environment, whether the child is female, family structure, the mothers age at birth, race/ethnic background, maternal AFQT, or cognitive development growth with respect to high school completion.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the data suggesting that birth weight is moderated by family circumstances is sparse (e.g., Lin et al, 2007;Conley and Bennett, 2001;Currie and Hyson, 1999;Hack et al, 1995), research with large samples and sufficient statistical power are relatively rare in birth weight moderation studies. Conley and colleagues (2007), using the PSID-CDS, for example, report that birth weight is related to achievement for black siblings and siblings with a mother with less than a high school education.…”

Section: The Role Of Family Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, the developmental birth weight impacts reported in Table 2 appear to influence all youth similarly. Conley and Bennett (2001) suggested that income may act as a developmental buffer for the relationship between birth weight and high school completion, although their results suffer from a lack of statistical power and do not persist for their most persuasive fixed-effects model. Once again, we found little evidence of birth weight moderation, particularly in the conceptually stronger multilevel models.…”

Section: Birth Weight and Family Background Moderationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Birth weight, cognitive development, and life chances: A comparison of siblings from childhood into early adulthood

Cheadle

Goosby

2010

Social Science Research

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Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Child Sample (CNLSY79), we sought to elaborate the complex interplay between childhood health and educational development over the early life course. Our approach made use of sibling comparisons to estimate the relationship between birth weight, cognitive development, and timely high school completion in models that spanned childhood, adolescence, and into early adulthood. Our findings indicated that lower birth weight, even after adjusting for fixed-family characteristics and aspects of the home environment that varied between siblings, was associated with decreased cognitive skills at age 5 and marginally significantly slower growth rates into adolescence. In addition, low birth weight increased the risk of not graduating by age 19, although this relationship reflected differences in cognitive development. Additional moderation analyses provided no evidence that birth weight effects are exacerbated by social conditions. Overall, the pattern of findings painted a complex picture of disadvantage, beginning in the womb and presumably via educational attainment, extending over the life course.

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“…Socioeconomic advantage has been shown to buffer adverse effects of certain exposures, low birth weight is a much explored example. [25][26][27] However, whether this holds true for adult exposures remains little explored. SES is known to be associated with cognitive function 28 and with IMT and its progression over time.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%