Work

The intergenerational transmission of inequality: Maternal disadvantage and health at birth

Year: 2014

Type: review

Abstract: Health at birth is an important predictor of long-term outcomes, including education, income, and disability. Recent evidence suggests that maternal disadvantage leads to worse health at birth through poor health behaviors; exposure to harmful environmental factors; worse access to medical care, including family planning; and worse underlying maternal health. With increasing inequality, those at the bottom of the distribution now face relatively worse economic conditions, but newborn health among the most disadvantaged has actually improved. The most likely explanation is increasing knowledge about determinants of infant health and how to protect it along with public policies that put this knowledge into practice.

Source: Science

DOI: 10.1126/science.1251872

Authors: Anna Aizer, Janet Currie

Institutions: National Bureau of Economic Research, Brown University, Princeton University

Language: English

Topic: Maternal and Neonatal Healthcare

Subfield: General Health Professions

Field: Health Professions

Domain: Health Sciences

SDGs: Reduced inequalities, Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funder: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development