Rising inequality of infant health in the U.S.

Rauscher, Emily; Rangel, David E.

doi:10.1016/j.ssmph.2020.100698

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 29 publications

(36 reference statements)

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“…In terms of trends in infant health, research from Chile has shown that the gestational age and birth weight of live births have significantly changed over the past decades (Abufhele, Pesando, and Castro 2022;Lopez and Bréart 2012;Torche and Abufhele 2021). Despite the rapid economic growth that the country experienced over the last decades, the share of children born with less than 2,500 g-the definition of low weight at birth-and the share of children born before 37 weeks of gestation-the definition of preterm birth-have increased over time, echoing recent worrisome evidence from the United States (Rauscher and Rangel 2020). In 1990, the proportion of LBW was 5.7 percent, while this rose to 6.3 percent in 2015.…”

Section: Fertility and Covid-19 In The Chilean Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Declining Quantity and Quality of Births in Chile amidst the COVID‐19 Pandemic

Pesando¹,

Abufhele²

2023

Population & Development Rev

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Extensive demographic scholarship shows that the population‐level implications of mortality crises such as the COVID‐19 pandemic extend beyond mortality dynamics to affect fertility and family‐formation strategies. Using novel municipality‐level data from Chile covering all births that occurred between January 2017 and December 2021, this study explores trends in fertility and implications of the COVID‐19 pandemic for “quantum” and “quality” of births in the Chilean context. Building both a monthly and a yearly panel of 346 municipalities and leveraging fixed‐effects regression analyses, we focus on births and crude birth rates to measure quantum, while quality is assessed through the share of births that are low‐weight (LBW) and preterm (PTB). Our findings provide evidence of a significant drop in fertility in the wake of COVID—of the magnitude of a reduction of 1.3 live births per 1,000 individuals—which reaches a minimum around February 2021, followed by an incipient rebound in late 2021. Moreover, estimates on child health at birth suggest that the COVID period was associated with an increase in LBW and, foremost, PTB, by 1 and 2.2 percentage points, respectively. Findings from this study shed light on the role of policy interventions in the health arena and the linkages between short‐ and long‐run effects in relation to the various COVID‐19 waves in Chile.

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Section: Fertility and Covid-19 In The Chilean Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Declining Quantity and Quality of Births in Chile amidst the COVID‐19 Pandemic

Pesando¹,

Abufhele²

2023

Population & Development Rev

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“…From a methodological standpoint, we begin by providing graphical descriptive evidence of the relationship between mobile-phone ownership and whether the child is considered a LBW infant. The cut-off selected for low-weight births is when a child weighs 2,500 grams or less [28][29][30][31], a variable which was created from the original continuous one, also kept as a separate independent outcome-as continuous and dichotomous outcomes may retain different amounts of information. As far as the outcomes are concerned, three observations are worth of note.…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Mobile phones and infant health at birth

Pesando,

Qiyomiddin

2023

PLoS ONE

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There is increasing evidence that digital technologies such as mobile phones have the potential to shape some of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) such as health, education, and nutrition, even among the most resource-deprived countries and communities in the world. Nonetheless, little research has focused on the intergenerational implications of digital technologies for infant health and wellbeing. This study leverages Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data from 29 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to explore associations between mothers’ ownership of mobile phones and their children’s health at birth, as measured by birth weight and low birth weight (LBW), i.e., weight lower than 2,500 grams. Infants born to women owning mobile phones fare consistently better in terms of birth weight, even after accounting for potential socioeconomic confounders and other sources of media or information in the household. Partly, mechanisms are consistent with the idea of broader knowledge and access to healthcare services, as associations are mediated by a higher number of antenatal visits, higher likelihood of having a birth assisted by a health professional, and by the extent to which mothers hear about family planning by text message. Associations are strongest among low-educated mothers. Also, associations are stronger in countries where infant health is poorer yet mobile-phone diffusion is higher, highlighting the comparatively higher potential of the diffusion of mobile phones for global development in poorest contexts. Our findings may be of interest to scholars and policymakers concerned with identifying relatively cheap policy levers to promote global health and wellbeing in disadvantaged contexts, particularly among women.

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“…A systematic review of the literature through the end of 2017 found that Medicaid expansion “was associated with increases in coverage, service use, quality of care, and Medicaid spending” (Mazurenko et al, 2018). One study found that the law's expansion of access to health care contributed to a reduction in infant health inequality (Rauscher & Rangel, 2020). Another found that, by the end of 2018, states that had expanded Medicaid experienced significantly fewer premature cancer deaths than states that had not expanded Medicaid.…”

Section: The Aca and The Goal Of Reducing Health Care Inequalitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inequalities in hospitalizations for ambulatory care sensitive conditions in New York City before and after the affordable care act

Gusmano

Weisz

Rodwin

2022

World Med & Health Policy

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The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law by U.S. President Obama in 2010 and fully implemented in 2014. The ACA expanded health insurance by expanding the Medicaid program, creating health insurance exchanges (now called “marketplaces”) in which people with incomes between 139% and 400% of the federal poverty level, could purchase subsidized insurance coverage, and by regulating health insurance to eliminate practices such as denying coverage to people with pre‐existing conditions, or basing premiums on health status. We investigate the effects of the ACA's implementation on access to ambulatory health services in New York City by comparing rates of hospitalizations for ambulatory care‐sensitive conditions (ACSC) before and after the full implementation of the law. Although the ACA was associated with a significant decrease in the rate of ACSC in NYC, we find that there continue to be systemic inequalities by gender, race, ethnicity, income, and insurance status. We argue that the broader social and economic inequalities at the national and state levels, including tax and spending policies that have led to increased income and wealth inequalities, help explain why we see persistent inequalities in hospitalizations for ACSC.

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Rising inequality of infant health in the U.S.

Cited by 9 publications

References 29 publications

Declining Quantity and Quality of Births in Chile amidst the COVID‐19 Pandemic

Declining Quantity and Quality of Births in Chile amidst the COVID‐19 Pandemic

Mobile phones and infant health at birth

Inequalities in hospitalizations for ambulatory care sensitive conditions in New York City before and after the affordable care act

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