Socioeconomic inequalities in low birth weight risk before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina: A cross-sectional study

Cuestas, Eduardo; Gómez-Flores, Martha E; Charras, Maria Delia; Peyrano, Alberto J; Montenegro, Clara; Sosa-Boye, Ignacio; Burgos, Verónica; Giusti, Graciela; Espósito, Mario; Blanco-Pool, Silvyana S; Gurevich, Debora P; Ahumada, Luis A; Pontoriero, Ricardo David; Rizzotti, Alina; Bas, J Le; Vaca, María B; Miranda, María J; Ferreyra, Mirta Elena; Moreno, Gabriela Cortés; Pedicino, Héctor; Rojas-Rios, Melvy

doi:10.1016/j.lana.2021.100049

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Changes in the weight impact of isolation measures on low birth weight infants were reported in Spain ( Llorca et al, 2021 ) and Argentina ( Cuestas et al, 2021 ). In their study, lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic reduced the proportion of low-birth-weight births.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies have also pointed out the analysis of the status of new coronary pneumonia in pregnant women ( Fox and Melka, 2020 ), the clinical manifestations of COVID-19 patients during pregnancy ( Sabharwal et al, 2021 ), and the study of adverse childbirth outcomes ( Sun et al, 2021 ). In addition, some scholars have also paid attention to the impact of the epidemic lockdown and isolation on premature birth, stillbirth ( Khalil et al, 2020 , Handley et al, 2021 ), and low birth weight of newborns ( Llorca et al, 2021 , Cuestas et al, 2021 ). Previous studies have found a decrease in preterm births ( McDonnell et al, 2020 ) and an increase in stillbirths ( Khalil et al, 2020 ) as a result of isolation, demonstrating that the isolation of pregnant women in COVID-19 affects pregnancy outcomes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Impact of Isolation measures on pregnancy outcome during the COVID-19 pandemic

Tao

Yang²,

Wang³

et al. 2023

Economics & Human Biology

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Isolation measures on pregnancy outcome during the COVID-19 pandemic

Tao

Yang²,

Wang³

et al. 2023

Economics & Human Biology

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“…Conversely, this risk clearly decreased when the utilization rate was >110%. This can be attributed to timely pre-natal examinations providing doctors with more accurate fetal development information, allowing for the adjustment of healthcare measures during pregnancy, giving women more scientific guidance, and improve the nutritional intake of pregnant women ( 23 – 25 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends and characteristics of multiple births in Baoan Shenzhen: A retrospective study over a decade

Tang

Zou

2022

Front. Public Health

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BackgroundShenzhen has the largest and youngest foreign population among all cities in China. The reproductive health of pregnant women from different backgrounds is a social issue that deserves attention. In the past decade, China has liberalized its population policies to stimulate population growth, and the proportion of multiple births has continued to increase.MethodThis retrospective cohort included 526,654 newborns born in Baoan, Shenzhen, from January 1, 2009, to December 31, 2019, including 515,016 singletons and 11,638 twins or triplets. Univariate regression models were used to analyze the effects of maternal sociodemographic characteristics, physiological characteristics, medical history, antenatal care and other factors associated with single vs. multiple births and to elucidate the changing trends of different factors affecting multiple births in the past 11 years. Additionally, fetal development in multiple births was analyzed by generalized linear mixed models.ResultsThe rates of pregnancy complications, preterm birth, and advanced-age pregnancy were significantly higher in the multiple birth mothers than in single birth mothers, and more multiple pregnancies were achieved through assisted reproductive technologies. The rates of adverse outcomes such as stillbirth, malformation, hypoxia, and ultralow body weight in multiple fetuses were significantly higher than that in singleton fetuses. The trend analysis from 2009 to 2019 showed that the socioeconomic status and health level of mothers with multiple births improved over time, and the risk during pregnancy generally decreased. Simultaneously, the development indicators of multiple fetuses have improved year by year, and the proportion of adverse outcomes has also decreased significantly. A low pre-natal care utilization rate was shown to be detrimental to the development of multiple fetuses. Independent risk factors for hypoxia and very low birth weight were also identified. The differences in secular trends between two birth groups were further revealed by time series models.ConclusionThis study presented a comprehensive survey of multiple pregnancies in the area with the largest population inflow in China. This study identified the factors that affect the health of multiple birth mothers and their fetuses, particularly suggesting that preterm birth rates and the use of assisted reproduction remain high. The findings provide a basis for the formulation of individualized pre-natal care, assisted reproductive guidance and healthcare policies for multiple births.

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“…DiD approaches are typically used to assess the causal effect of a policy or program by comparing the treatment group to a control group before and after an intervention, wherein a clear temporal cutoff pre- and post-intervention exists. DiD models have already been used to provide preliminary evidence of the effects of COVID-19 on several different health outcomes, including but not limited to neonatal outcomes [ 24 ], birth outcomes [ 25 ], or healthcare utilization rates [ 26 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Universal healthcare coverage and health service delivery before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: A difference-in-difference study of childhood immunization coverage from 195 countries

2022

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Background Several studies have indicated that universal health coverage (UHC) improves health service utilization and outcomes in countries. These studies, however, have primarily assessed UHC’s peacetime impact, limiting our understanding of UHC’s potential protective effects during public health crises such as the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We empirically explored whether countries’ progress toward UHC is associated with differential COVID-19 impacts on childhood immunization coverage. Methods and findings Using a quasi-experimental difference-in-difference (DiD) methodology, we quantified the relationship between UHC and childhood immunization coverage before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis considered 195 World Health Organization (WHO) member states and their ability to provision 12 out of 14 childhood vaccines between 2010 and 2020 as an outcome. We used the 2019 UHC Service Coverage Index (UHC SCI) to divide countries into a “high UHC index” group (UHC SCI ≥80) and the rest. All analyses included potential confounders including the calendar year, countries’ income group per the World Bank classification, countries’ geographical region as defined by WHO, and countries’ preparedness for an epidemic/pandemic as represented by the Global Health Security Index 2019. For robustness, we replicated the analysis using a lower cutoff value of 50 for the UHC index. A total of 20,230 country-year observations were included in the study. The DiD estimators indicated that countries with a high UHC index (UHC SCI ≥80, n = 35) had a 2.70% smaller reduction in childhood immunization coverage during the pandemic year of 2020 as compared to the countries with UHC index less than 80 (DiD coefficient 2.70; 95% CI: 0.75, 4.65; p-value = 0.007). This relationship, however, became statistically nonsignificant at the lower cutoff value of UHC SCI <50 (n = 60). The study’s primary limitation was scarce data availability, which restricted our ability to account for confounders and to test our hypothesis for other relevant outcomes. Conclusions We observed that countries with greater progress toward UHC were associated with significantly smaller declines in childhood immunization coverage during the pandemic. This identified association may potentially provide support for the importance of UHC in building health system resilience. Our findings strongly suggest that policymakers should continue to advocate for achieving UHC in coming years.

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Socioeconomic inequalities in low birth weight risk before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina: A cross-sectional study

Cited by 9 publications

References 25 publications

Impact of Isolation measures on pregnancy outcome during the COVID-19 pandemic

Impact of Isolation measures on pregnancy outcome during the COVID-19 pandemic

Trends and characteristics of multiple births in Baoan Shenzhen: A retrospective study over a decade

Universal healthcare coverage and health service delivery before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: A difference-in-difference study of childhood immunization coverage from 195 countries

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