The impact of maternal risk factors on low birthweight births in the United States: Time-series cross-section analysis.
Item
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Title
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The impact of maternal risk factors on low birthweight births in the United States: Time-series cross-section analysis.
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Identifier
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AAI9605605
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identifier
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9605605
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Creator
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Huh, In.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Michael Grossman
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Date
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1995
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Economics, General | Economics, Labor | Sociology, Demography
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Abstract
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This paper estimates a structural health production function that simultaneously considers the impact of various maternal risk factors on race-specific rate of low birthweight birth with a pooled time-series cross-section of all United States live births, aggregated by state, controlling for fixed effects for the twenty-year period from 1973 to 1992. The maternal risk factors include the use of abortion service, out-of-wedlock births, prenatal care, education, and unemployment rate. Unlike the previous studies, this study applied estimated race-specific abortion, education, and unemployment which are not currently available in race-specific form at the state level.;This study has three main findings. First, the contribution of abortion use on the changes in the birth outcomes becomes less important over time and its impact on birth outcomes is not affected by the inclusion of education and unemployment. Second, the early initiation of prenatal care has no significant effect on birth outcomes once state and time fixed effects are included. The magnitude of impact on birth outcomes is greatly affected by the inclusion of education and unemployment. There is also a strong evidence of favorable selection for both races. Third, out-of-wedlock births is the most significant and stable predictor of birth outcomes and makes the worst contribution to predicted decline in the rate of low birthweight births for both races. Its impact on birth outcomes is not greatly affected by the inclusion of education and unemployment. The results of this study suggest that the increasing trend of low birthweight births can be lowered by by lowering the birth rates among unwed women on the one hand, and removing obstacles to easy access to early prenatal care for pregnancies among unwed women on the other.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
