The association of low socio-economic status in metropolitan Adelaide with maternal demographic and obstetric characteristics and pregnancy outcome

Abstract

The South Australian perinatal statistics collection for 1988 was used to consider the association of low socio-economic status in metropolitan Adelaide (South Australia) with maternal demographic and obstetric characteristics and pregnancy outcome in 12047 singleton births. Socio-economic status--low, middle or high--was inferred from the socio-economic rating of the postcode of residence. Chi-squared analyses were carried out to test for significant trends in proportions of pregnancy and pregnancy outcome variables across the socio-economic groupings. There was trend for the proportions of adverse obstetric and perinatal outcomes to decrease with increasing level of socio-economic status. Logistic regression analysis, adjusted for maternal age, marital status, race, parity and gestational age, confirmed the findings of the trend analyses, namely that mothers from the poor socio-economic areas were at a greater risk for poor pregnancy outcome. These poor outcomes included Apgar scores of less that 7 at both 1 and 5 minutes after birth, delay in onset of regular breathing of 5 minutes or longer; the need for intubation; the use of narcotic antagonists; low birthweight of under 2500 g; the need for special nursey care; and neonatal death.