The differential effects of maternal age, race/ethnicity and insurance on neonatal intensive care unit admission rates.

Authors

Beatriz E de Jongh, Department of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, St. Christopher's Hospital for Children
Robert Locke, Department of Neonatology, Christiana Care Health System; Department of Pediatrics, Thomas Jefferson UniversityFollow
David A Paul, Department of Neonatology, Christiana Care Health System; Department of Pediatrics, Thomas Jefferson UniversityFollow
Matthew Hoffman, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Christiana Care Health SystemFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-17-2012

Comments

This article has been peer reviewed. It was published in: BMC pregnancy and childbirth.

Volume 12, 17 September 2012, Article number 97.

The published version is available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3495040/. DOI: 10.1186/1471-2393-12-97.

Copyright © 2012 de Jongh et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Maternal race/ethnicity, age, and socioeconomic status (SES) are important factors determining birth outcome. Previous studies have demonstrated that, teenagers, and mothers with advanced maternal age (AMA), and Black/Non-Hispanic race/ethnicity can independently increase the risk for a poor pregnancy outcome. Similarly, public insurance has been associated with suboptimal health outcomes. The interaction and impact on the risk of a pregnancy resulting in a NICU admission has not been studied. Our aim was, to analyze the simultaneous interactions of teen/advanced maternal age (AMA), race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status on the odds of NICU admission.

METHODS: The Consortium of Safe Labor Database (subset of n = 167,160 live births) was used to determine NICU admission and maternal factors: age, race/ethnicity, insurance, previous c-section, and gestational age.

RESULTS: AMA mothers were more likely than teenaged mothers to have a pregnancy result in a NICU admission. Black/Non-Hispanic mothers with private insurance had increased odds for NICU admission. This is in contrast to the lower odds of NICU admission seen with Hispanic and White/Non-Hispanic pregnancies with private insurance.

CONCLUSIONS: Private insurance is protective against a pregnancy resulting in a NICU admission for Hispanic and White/Non-Hispanic mothers, but not for Black/Non-Hispanic mothers. The health disparity seen between Black and White/Non-Hispanics for the risk of NICU admission is most evident among pregnancies covered by private insurance. These study findings demonstrate that adverse pregnancy outcomes are mitigated differently across race, maternal age, and insurance status.

Recommended Citation

de Jongh, Beatriz E; Locke, Robert; Paul, David A; and Hoffman, Matthew, "The differential effects of maternal age, race/ethnicity and insurance on neonatal intensive care unit admission rates." (2012). Department of Pediatrics Faculty Papers. Paper 51.
https://jdc.jefferson.edu/pedsfp/51

PubMed ID

22985092