Babies
Parental Job Loss and Infant Health
Jason Lindo
Journal of Health Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper is the first to explore the extent to which the health effects of job displacement extend to the children of displaced workers. Using detailed work and fertility histories from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, estimates are identified by comparing the outcomes of children born after a displacement to the outcomes of those born before. This analysis reveals that husbands' job losses have significant negative effects on infant health. They reduce birth weights by approximately four and a half percent with suggestive evidence that the effect is concentrated on the lower half of the birth weight distribution.
----------------------
Legal Abortion Worldwide in 2008: Levels and Recent Trends
Gilda Sedgh et al.
Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, forthcoming
Context: Periodic assessments of abortion incidence are essential for monitoring trends in unintended pregnancy and gaps in contraceptive services and use.
Methods: Statistics and estimates of legal induced abortions in 2008 were compiled for 64 of the 77 countries in which legal abortion is generally available; the 64 are home to 98% of women aged 15-44 who live in the countries eligible for inclusion. Data sources included reports or completed questionnaires from national statistical offices and nationally representative surveys. The completeness of official figures was assessed by in-country and regional experts. Trends since 1996 and 2003 were examined.
Results: Of the 77 countries with liberal abortion laws, 36 are in the developing world. In 2008, abortion rates in the 25 countries with complete records-all of which were developed-ranged from seven (Germany and Switzerland) to 30 (Estonia) per 1,000 women aged 15-44. Abortion rates declined in about half of the 20 countries with consistently reliable information on trends between 1996 and 2008; declines were generally steeper than increases, although the pace of decline slowed after 2003. The highest observed abortion rates were in developing countries with incomplete estimates. For most developing countries that had liberal laws, the reported abortion rates were incomplete and varied widely.
Conclusions: High abortion rates in some countries, and small increases in rates in others, indicate a great need for more effective family planning services for these populations. Reliable data collection systems, needed to ensure that trends can be effectively monitored, are lacking in many countries.
----------------------
Regulating abortion: Impact on patients and providers in Texas
Silvie Colman & Ted Joyce
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, forthcoming
Abstract:
The State of Texas began enforcement of the Woman's Right to Know (WRTK) Act on January 1, 2004. The law requires that all abortions at or after 16 weeks' gestation be performed in an ambulatory surgical center (ASC). In the month the law went into effect, not one of Texas's 54 nonhospital abortion providers met the requirements of a surgical center. The effect was immediate and dramatic. The number of abortions performed in Texas at or after 16 weeks' gestation dropped 88 percent, from 3,642 in 2003 to 446 in 2004, while the number of residents who left the state for a late abortion almost quadrupled. By 2006, abortions at or after 16 weeks' gestation in a nonhospital setting were available in four major cities in Texas (down from nine in 2003), and the abortion rate at or after 16 weeks' gestation remained 50 percent below its pre-Act level. Regulation of abortion providers that require new facilities or costly renovations could have profound effects on the market for second-trimester abortions.
----------------------
S.H. Alwasel et al.
American Journal of Human Biology, September/October 2011, Pages 651-654
Objectives: In Europe, boys and girls have different body proportions at birth. We examined newborn babies in Saudi Arabia to determine the sex differences and whether fetal growth differed if the mother was in utero during Ramadan.
Methods: We examined body size at birth among 967 babies (479 boys and 488 girls) born in Unizah, a small city in Saudi Arabia.
Results: Large head circumference was the strongest single predictor of male sex. In a simultaneous regression, female sex was predicted by small head circumference (P < 0.001), low birth weight (P = 0.002), and large chest circumference (P = 0.008). The mothers of boys were heavier in pregnancy than the mothers of girls and had a higher body mass index, 31.7 kg/m2 compared to 30.2 (P < 0.001). The mothers of girls, however, were taller than the mothers of boys, 158.6 cm compared to 157.4 (P = 0.001). Compared to babies whose mothers were not in utero during Ramadan boys whose mothers were in mid gestation during Ramadan were 1.2 cm longer (P = 0.005) while girls had a 0.4 week shorter gestation period (P = 0.04).
Conclusion: Our findings are consistent with other evidence that boys are more ready than girls to trade off visceral development in utero to protect somatic and brain growth. They also support the hypothesis that boys are more responsive to their mother's current diet than girls, who respond more to their mother's life time nutrition and metabolism. They provide the first evidence that changes in the life style of pregnant women during Ramadan affect more than one generation.
----------------------
Early Maternal Employment and Family Wellbeing
Pinka Chatterji, Sara Markowitz & Jeanne Brooks-Gunn
NBER Working Paper, July 2011
Abstract:
This study uses longitudinal data from the NICHD Study on Early Child Care (SECC) to examine the effects of maternal employment on family well-being, measured by maternal mental and overall health, parenting stress, and parenting quality. First, we estimate the effects of maternal employment on these outcomes measured when children are 6 months old. Next, we use dynamic panel data models to examine the effects of maternal employment on family outcomes during the first 4.5 years of children's lives. Among mothers of six month old infants, maternal work hours are positively associated with depressive symptoms and self-reported parenting stress, and negatively associated with self-rated overall health among mothers. Compared to mothers who are on leave 3 months after childbirth, mothers who are working full-time score 22 percent higher on the CES-D scale of depressive symptoms. However, maternal employment is not associated with the quality of parenting at 6 months, based on trained assessors' observations of maternal sensitivity. Moreover, during the first 4.5 years of life as a whole, we find only weak evidence that maternal work hours are associated with maternal health, and no evidence that maternal employment is associated with parenting stress and quality. We find that unobserved heterogeneity is an important factor in modeling family outcomes.
----------------------
Elaine Howard Ecklund & Anne Lincoln
PLoS ONE, August 2011, e22590
Abstract:
Scholars partly attribute the low number of women in academic science to the impact of the science career on family life. Yet, the picture of how men and women in science - at different points in the career trajectory - compare in their perceptions of this impact is incomplete. In particular, we know little about the perceptions and experiences of junior and senior scientists at top universities, institutions that have a disproportionate influence on science, science policy, and the next generation of scientists. Here we show that having fewer children than wished as a result of the science career affects the life satisfaction of science faculty and indirectly affects career satisfaction, and that young scientists (graduate students and postdoctoral fellows) who have had fewer children than wished are more likely to plan to exit science entirely. We also show that the impact of science on family life is not just a woman's problem; the effect on life satisfaction of having fewer children than desired is more pronounced for male than female faculty, with life satisfaction strongly related to career satisfaction. And, in contrast to other research, gender differences among graduate students and postdoctoral fellows disappear. Family factors impede talented young scientists of both sexes from persisting to research positions in academic science. In an era when the global competitiveness of US science is at risk, it is concerning that a significant proportion of men and women trained in the select few spots available at top US research universities are considering leaving science and that such desires to leave are related to the impact of the science career on family life. Results from our study may inform university family leave policies for science departments as well as mentoring programs in the sciences.
----------------------
Globalization and Population: International Trade and the Demographic Transition
John Doces
International Interactions, Spring 2011, Pages 127-146
Abstract:
I study the effect of international trade on birth rates across a large number of countries. A supply-demand model of the birth rate explains that a rise in international trade reduces the demand for children and encourages an earlier onset of the mortality revolution. These two effects caused by the rise of international trade lead to a lower birth rate. A time-series cross-section empirical analysis for a large sample of developed and developing countries exhibits that international trade has a statistically significant and inverse effect on the birth rate. The policy implications relating to trade, economic growth, and conflict are discussed in the conclusion.
----------------------
Relation of Prenatal Smoking Exposure and Use of Psychotropic Medication up to Young Adulthood
Mikael Ekblad et al.
American Journal of Epidemiology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The study objective was to determine the relation of prenatal smoking exposure to the use of psychotropic medication up to young adulthood by using population-based longitudinal register data consisting of all singletons born in Finland from 1987 to 1989 (n = 175,869). Information on maternal smoking was assessed during antenatal care and received from the Finnish Medical Birth Register. Information on the children's psychotropic medication (1994-2007) was received from the Drug Prescription Register, and the children's psychiatric diagnoses related to outpatient (1998-2007) and inpatient (1987-2007) care were derived from the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register. A total of 15.3% (n = 26,083) of the children were exposed to prenatal smoking. The incidence of psychotropic medication use was 8.3% in unexposed children, 11.3% in children exposed to <10 cigarettes per day (adjusted odds ratio = 1.36, 95% confidence interval: 1.29, 1.43), and 13.6% in children exposed to >10 cigarettes per day (odds ratio = 1.63, 95% confidence interval: 1.53, 1.74). The exposure was significantly associated with the risk for all medication use and for both single- and multiple-drug consumption even after adjustment (e.g., mothers' severe psychiatric illnesses). These findings show that exposure to smoking during pregnancy is linked to both mild and severe psychiatric morbidity.
----------------------
The Impact of Maternal Smoking during Pregnancy on Early Child Neurodevelopment
George Wehby et al.
Journal of Human Capital, Summer 2011, Pages 207-254
Abstract:
Early child neurodevelopment has major impacts on future human capital and health. However, not much is known about the impacts of prenatal risk factors on child neurodevelopment. We evaluate the effects of maternal smoking during pregnancy on child neurodevelopment between 3 months and 24 months of age and interactions with socioeconomic status (SES). We employ data from a unique sample of children from South America. Smoking has large adverse effects on neurodevelopment, with larger effects in the low-SES sample. Our results highlight the importance of early interventions beginning before and during pregnancy for enhancing child development and future human capital attainment.
----------------------
Caution, Drivers! Children Present: Traffic, Pollution, and Infant Health
Christopher Knittel, Douglas Miller & Nicholas Sanders
NBER Working Paper, July 2011
Abstract:
Since the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (CAAA), atmospheric concentration of local pollutants has fallen drastically. A natural question is whether further reductions will yield additional health benefits. We further this research by addressing two related research questions: (1) what is the impact of automobile driving (and especially congestion) on ambient air pollution levels, and (2) what is the impact of modern air pollution levels on infant health? Our setting is California (with a focus on the Central Valley and Southern California) in the years 2002-2007. Using an instrumental variables approach that exploits the relationship between traffic, ambient weather conditions, and various pollutants, our findings suggest that ambient pollution levels, specifically particulate matter, still have large impacts on weekly infant mortality rates. Our results also illustrate the importance of weather controls in measuring pollution's impact on infant mortality.
----------------------
The Medium Term Schooling and Health Effects of Low Birth Weight: Evidence from Siblings
Jason Fletcher
Economics of Education Review, June 2011, Pages 517-527
Abstract:
Research has shown that low birth weight is linked to infant mortality as well as longer term outcomes. This paper examines the medium term outcomes that may link low birth weight to adult disadvantage using a national longitudinal sample with a large sample of siblings (Add Health). Results show strong effects on several educational outcomes, including early grade repetition, receipt of special education services, and reports of a learning disability. Results for longer term outcomes are suggestive, though less robust and small in magnitude. Overall, the results suggest that medium term educational disadvantages associated with low birth weight are not driven by family level unobservables and do not accumulate into large long-term disadvantage.
----------------------
Does ‘Wanting the Best' create more stress? The link between baby sign classes and maternal anxiety
Neil Howlett, Elizabeth Kirk & Karen Pine
Infant and Child Development, July/August 2011, Pages 437-445
Abstract:
This study investigated whether gesturing classes (baby sign) affected parental frustration and stress, as advertised by many commercial products. The participants were 178 mother-infant dyads, divided into a gesture group (n=89) and a non-gesture group (n=89), based on whether they had attended baby sign classes or not. Mothers completed a background demographics questionnaire and the Parenting Stress Index. Gesturing mothers had higher total stress scores, with higher scores on the child domain, despite having similar backgrounds to non-gesturing mothers. There was no relationship between the frequency or duration of gesture use and stress scores. It is suggested that gesturing mothers had higher pre-existing stress and were attracted to gesture classes because of the promoted benefits, which include stress reduction, although class attendance did not alleviate their stress. The possibility that attending gesturing classes made mothers view their infant in a more negative way, due to their heightened expectations not being met, is also discussed.
----------------------
Vanessa Vazquez, Verónica Alonso & Francisco Luna
Journal of Biosocial Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper describes the biological fitness of an urban population of Havana city, Plaza de la Revolución, which has the lowest fertility and the highest demographic ageing in Cuba. The aim is to assess the biological fitness of this community through the indexes of action opportunity of natural selection, to determine its evolutionary pattern and the influence of its socio-cultural peculiarity. Demographic data were obtained from the reproductive histories of 1200 women between the ages of 55 and 64. Data concerning mortality and surviving offspring from the first embryonic stages until age of reproduction were also collected. In order to measure the level of biological fitness two indexes were used: the Crow index of action opportunity of natural selection and the corrected index proposed by Johnston and Kensinger, which takes into account prenatal mortality. This corrected index was calculated including and excluding induced abortions in order to evaluate the contribution of these to biological fitness. When only postnatal mortality was considered, the results showed an evolutionary pattern similar to that of developed countries, based on low mortality and fertility. However, when prenatal mortality was taken into account, biological fitness decreased and the corrected index of natural selection was 4.5 times higher than when miscarriages and fetal deaths were not considered. Moreover, this corrected index was 2.65 times higher when induced miscarriages were considered, indicating the large decrease in biological fitness as a result of the current reproductive behaviour of frequent induced abortion.
----------------------
Racial Residential Segregation and Low Birth Weight in Michigan's Metropolitan Areas
Michelle Debbink & Michael Bader
American Journal of Public Health, September 2011, Pages 1714-1720
Objectives: We examined the influence of racial residential segregation, independent of neighborhood economic factors, on the overall and specific etiological risks of low birth weight.
Methods: We geocoded all singleton births in Michigan metropolitan areas during 2000 to census tracts. We used hierarchical generalized linear models to investigate the association between low birth weight (< 2500 g) and neighborhood-level economic and racial segregation, controlling for individual and neighborhood characteristics. We analyzed competing risks of the 2 etiologies of low birth weight: intrauterine growth restriction and preterm birth.
Results: Living in a Black segregated area was associated with increased odds (odds ratio [OR] = 1.15; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.03, 1.29; P < .05) of low birth weight after adjusting for individual- and tract-level measures. The analysis suggested that the association between low birth weight and racial segregation was attributable primarily to increased risk of intrauterine growth restriction (OR = 1.19; 95% CI = 1.03, 1.37; P < .05).
Conclusions: Odds of low birth weight are higher in racially segregated Black neighborhoods in Michigan's metropolitan areas, independent of economic factors. The association appears to operate through intrauterine growth restriction rather than preterm birth.
----------------------
Cumulative Stress and Cortisol Disruption Among Black and Hispanic Pregnant Women in an Urban Cohort
Shakira Franco Suglia et al.
Psychological Trauma, December 2010, Pages 326-334
Abstract:
While adult hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis functioning is thought to be altered by traumatic experiences, little data exist on the effects of cumulative stress on HPA functioning among pregnant women or among specific racial/ethnic groups. The goal of this study was to explore the effects of multiple social stressors on HPA axis functioning in a sample of urban Black (n = 68) and Hispanic (n = 132) pregnant women enrolled in the Asthma Coalition on Community, Environment, and Social Stress (ACCESS). Women were administered the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (R-CTS) survey, the Experiences of Discrimination (EOD) survey, the Crisis in Family Systems-Revised (CRISYS-R) negative life events survey, and the My Exposure to Violence (ETV) survey, which ascertains community violence exposure. A cumulative stress measure was derived from these instruments. Salivary cortisol samples were collected five times per day over three days in order to characterize diurnal salivary cortisol patterns. Repeated measures mixed models, stratified by race/ethnicity, were performed adjusting for education level, age, smoking status, body mass index and weeks pregnant at time of cortisol sampling. The majority of Hispanic participants (57%) had low cumulative stress, while Black participants had intermediate (35%) or high (41%) cumulative stress. Among Black but not Hispanic women, cumulative stress was associated with lower morning cortisol levels, including a flatter waking to bedtime rhythm. These analyses suggest that the combined effects of cumulative stressful experiences are associated with disrupted HPA functioning among pregnant women. The etiology of racial/ethnic differences in stress-induced HPA alterations warrants further research.
----------------------
Enrique Regidor et al.
International Journal of Epidemiology, forthcoming
Background: A close examination of the literature suggests that the consistent relation between political and welfare state characteristics and infant mortality in the second half of the 20th century in wealthy countries may not be causal.
Methods: The evolution of infant mortality since the late 19th century was studied in 17 wealthy countries classified according to political traditions, family policy model and period of infant mortality transition. The relation of public health expenditure and income inequality to infant mortality from 1980 to 2005 was also evaluated.
Results: The Social Democratic and Scandinavian countries, and those with the earliest transition in infant mortality, had the lowest infant mortality rates until the early 21st century, whereas the late democracies, the Southern European countries, and those in which the transition in infant mortality took place later, had the highest rates until the late 20th century. By the early 21st century, the differences in infant mortality were negligible. Three of the four Scandinavian countries were the first to achieve infant mortality transition, whereas the Southern European countries were the last. The relation between public health expenditure and infant mortality varied depending on the time period in which the analysis was made, and increased income inequality was associated with higher infant mortality.
Conclusions: The relation between political and welfare state characteristics and infant mortality in previous studies probably reflects the historical moment in which the transition in infant mortality took place in each country. Methodological limitations do not allow inference of causality in the associations found between welfare state characteristics and infant mortality.