Abstract

Maternal education represents one of the most important social determinants of inequality in birth weight (BW) in developing countries. The present study sought to investigate secular trends in health inequality considering the difference in mean BW between extremes of maternal educational attainment in Brazil. Using a time-series design, data from 6,452,551 live births which occurred in all Brazilian state capitals from 1996 to 2013 were obtained from the Information System on Live Births. Secular trends of the difference in mean birth weight between low (<8 years of schooling) and high (≥12 years of schooling) educational attainment were analyzed. The main finding was that differences in mean birth weight between the two extremes of maternal educational attainment decreased over time. There was a significant decrease in mean BW in neonates born to mothers with higher educational attainment, and a slight increase in those born to mothers with lower educational attainment. One of the key factors involved in decreasing inequality was an increase in the number of antenatal visits. In view of these results, we conclude, that despite a slight increase of mean birth weight among mothers with low education, the reduction of inequality in pregnancy outcomes over time in Brazil is attributable to a worsening scenario for mothers who are better off rather than to improvements for the most vulnerable group of mothers.

Details

Title
Inequalities in birth weight and maternal education: a time-series study from 1996 to 2013 in Brazil
Author
Silvestrin Sonia 1 ; Hirakata Vânia Naomi 2 ; da Silva Clécio Homrich 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Goldani Marcelo Zubaran 3 

 Technical Area for Child and Adolescent Health, Porto Alegre Municipal Health Department, Porto Alegre, Brazil 
 Research and Graduate Studies Group, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, Brazil (GRID:grid.414449.8) (ISNI:0000 0001 0125 3761) 
 Research and Graduate Studies Group, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, Brazil (GRID:grid.414449.8) (ISNI:0000 0001 0125 3761); Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Department of Pediatrics, Porto Alegre, Brazil (GRID:grid.8532.c) (ISNI:0000 0001 2200 7498) 
Publication year
2020
Publication date
2020
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2406924381
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.