title: Social inequality in birth outcomes in Korea, 1995-2008.
abstract: Social inequality in adverse birth outcomes has been demonstrated in several countries. The present study examined the separate and joint effects of parental education and work in order to investigate the causal pathways of social class effects on adverse birth outcomes in Korea. The occurrence of low birth weight, preterm births, and intrauterine growth retardation was examined among 7,766,065 births in Korea from 1995 to 2008. The effect of social inequality, as represented by parental education and work, was examined against adverse birth outcomes using multivariate logistic regression after controlling for other covariates. Parental education had the most significant and greatest effect on all three adverse outcomes, followed by parental work and employment, which had lesser effects. For adverse birth outcomes, the gap between educational levels increased steadily in Korea from 1995 to 2008. Throughout the analysis, the effect of maternal manual work on adverse birth outcomes was apparent in the study results. Given this evidence of social inequality in education and employment, social interventions should aim at more in-depth and distal determinants of health.
authors: Department of Environmental Health, Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
authors: Mi-Jin
authors: MJ
authors: Park
authors: Mia
authors: M
authors: Son
authors: Young-Ju
authors: YJ
authors: Kim
authors: Domyung
authors: D
authors: Paek
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004522:Educational Status; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D005317:Fetal Growth Retardation / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009035:Mothers; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010290:Parents; D047928:Premature Birth / Q000453:epidemiology*; D056910:Republic of Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D012923:Social Class; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Birth Outcome Effect; Intrauterine Growth Retardation; Low Birth Weight; Parental Education; Parental Occupation; Parental Work; Preterm Birth; Social Inequality