Prenatal care, birth outcomes and newborn hospitalization costs: patterns among Hispanics in new Jersey
Reichman, N.E.; Kenney, G.M.
Family Planning Perspectives 30(4): 182-187; 200
1998
ISSN/ISBN: 0014-7354 PMID: 9711457 Document Number: 313810
Vital statistics data linked with hospital discharge files for single, live-born infants delivered in New Jersey (US) in 1989-90 were used to examine the effects of Hispanic ethnicity on prenatal care utilization, low birth weight, infant mortality, and newborn hospitalization costs. The findings indicate that disparities by race may be at least as important as variations in birthplace and ethnicity. Puerto Rican White women who gave birth in New Jersey were twice as likely, relative to their US-born non-Hispanic White counterparts, to have a low-birth-weight infant and to have an infant who died in the first year of life. In addition, their newborn hospitalization costs were 25% higher than those of US-born non-Hispanic White women. Women of Puerto Rican descent, regardless of whether they were born in the US, initiated prenatal care later than all other Whites, except the infants born in Mexico, and their infants had the highest rates of low birth weight and mortality among all Whites. Although the multivariate results indicated that ethnic Puerto Rican Black women begin prenatal care earlier and have better birth outcomes than non-Hispanic Blacks, the descriptive statistics showed that Puerto Rican Blacks and Whites have similar levels of prenatal care use and birth outcomes. Enhanced understanding of the sources of these racial disparities is important for the design of policies to improve birth outcomes. Poor outcomes without concomitant increases in hospitalization costs may be a sign of low access to high-quality neonatal care.