Disparities and Barriers Encountered by Immigrant Dominican Mothers Accessing Prenatal Care Services in Puerto Rico

Abstract

Inadequate access to prenatal services has been associated with higher rates of mother and child mortality and premature births in the general population. Thus, this paper aims to compare the utilization and adequacy of prenatal care services of Dominican immigrant mothers with that of Puerto Rican mothers. Data was extracted from birth certificates using a cohort from 1998 to 2002 (n = 252, 919). The Kotelchuck index for adequate prenatal care was used for comparison with socio-demographic characteristics of the population. Less than half of Dominican mothers (48.5 %) received adequate prenatal care compared to more than two-thirds (69.1 %) of Puerto Rican mothers (p < .001). After controlling for demographic characteristics, health insurance, pregnancy risks, complications and previous birth (parity) the odds of receiving adequate care of Dominican mothers was 0.7 that of Puerto Rican mothers (p < .001). These results suggest significant disparities in obtaining adequate prenatal care services among migrant women and native Puerto Ricans.

Disparities in Access to Prenatal Care Services for African Immigrant Women in Spain

“…Our results are in keeping with those of other recently published studies in Spain [23,24], [25][26][27][28][29], and elsewhere in the world [18][19][20][30][31][32][33][34].…”

“…Several studies have found that the less favorable socioeconomic status of immigrant women and the language barrier influence the utilization and adequacy of prenatal and postpartum care [18][19][20]. The purpose of the present study was to identify possible health inequalities by comparing the adequacy of antenatal care for uncomplicated pregnancies in African immigrant women (AIW) and native-born women in northern Spain.…”

Prevalence and gender patterns of mental health problems in German youth with experience of violence: the KiGGS study

“…The prevalence of mental health indicators in this sample has been reported on in more detail elsewhere [59,60,62,66,67]. In brief, internalizing problems – i.e.…”

“…Subjects were considered screen positive if they reported problems falling asleep (item: “I have problems falling asleep”; response options: yes/no ) or remaining asleep (item: “I have problems remaining asleep”; response options: yes/no ), in combination with daytime sleepiness (item: “During the last week, I was tired and weary”; response options: often or always on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from never to always ). Although this constitutes a rather crude measure, it has proven useful in preliminary analyses that have distinguished youth with sleeping problems across various psychosocial dimensions [59]. …”

HPV Awareness and Vaccine Willingness Among Dominican Immigrant Parents Attending a Federal Qualified Health Clinic in Puerto Rico

“…Although the continuously rising flow of international migration has made the topic of health and migration increasingly important worldwide (5), studies exploring the effects of Dominican immigrants on health are scarce in Puerto Rico (6). In the case of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), The HPV vaccine is provided for eligible low-income, uninsured or underinsured children throughout the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program at Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) in PR (7).…”