SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS AND ADVERSE BIRTH OUTCOMES: A POPULATION-BASED CANADIAN SAMPLE

What is it about?

There have been few population-based studies investigating the relationship between socioeconomic status and adverse birth outcomes in Canada, as birth registrations differ between provinces and territories with regards to the type of data collected, and access to perinatal databases can be challenging for population health researchers. The objective of our study was to determine the strength of the relationship between socioeconomic status and adverse birth outcomes, particularly low birth weight and preterm birth, after controlling for epidemiological and medical risk factors known to be associated with adverse birth outcomes. Data were obtained from the perinatal and neonatal databases at the London Health Science Centre (LHSC). All singleton infants without congenital anomalies who were born between February 2009 and February 2014 at the LHSC were included in the study. The final sample consisted of 26,654 live births.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

There is widely held view that socioeconomic status is highly associated with adverse birth outcomes. However, most the research on this topic has been from the United States. Our study from Southwestern Ontario, shows that socioeconomic status has little influence on birth outcomes. As well, Canada is in the process of legalizing marijuana without a lot of evidence on its effects during the perinatal period. Our study is the first large-scale study in Canada to show that marijuana use among pregnant women is highly associated with having a low birth weight infant.