FETAL HEALTH SHOCKS AND EARLY INEQUALITIES IN HEALTH CAPITAL ACCUMULATION

George L Wehby; Kwame A Nyarko; Jorge S Lopez-Camelo

doi:10.1002/hec.2901

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FETAL HEALTH SHOCKS AND EARLY INEQUALITIES IN HEALTH CAPITAL ACCUMULATION

Journal article

Peer reviewed

FETAL HEALTH SHOCKS AND EARLY INEQUALITIES IN HEALTH CAPITAL ACCUMULATION

George L Wehby, Kwame A Nyarko and Jorge S Lopez-Camelo

Health economics, Vol.23(1), pp.69-92

01/2014

DOI: 10.1002/hec.2901

PMCID: PMC3865137

PMID: 23339079

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http://doi.org/10.1002/hec.2901View

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Abstract

Several studies report socioeconomic inequalities in child health and consequences of early disease. However, not much is known about inequalities in health capital accumulation in the womb in response to fetal health shocks, which is essential for finding the earliest sensitive periods for interventions to reduce inequalities. We identify inequalities in birth weight accumulation as a result of fetal health shocks from the occurrence of one of the most common birth defects, oral clefts, within the first 9 weeks of pregnancy, using quantile regression and two datasets from South America and the US. Infants born at lower birth weight quantiles are significantly more adversely affected by the health shock compared to those born at higher birth weight quantiles, with overall comparable results between the South American and US samples. These results suggest that fetal health shocks increase child health disparities by widening the spread of the birth weight distribution and that health inequalities begin in the womb, requiring interventions before pregnancy.

disparities

quantile regression

inequalities

health production

Child health

pregnancy

Details

Title: Subtitle: FETAL HEALTH SHOCKS AND EARLY INEQUALITIES IN HEALTH CAPITAL ACCUMULATION
Creators: George L Wehby - Department of Health Management and Policy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
Kwame A Nyarko - Department of Health Management and Policy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
Jorge S Lopez-Camelo - Centro de Educación Médica e Investigaciones Clínicas (CEMIC), Buenos Aires, Argentina
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Health economics, Vol.23(1), pp.69-92
DOI: 10.1002/hec.2901
PMID: 23339079
PMCID: PMC3865137
NLM abbreviation: Health Econ
ISSN: 1057-9230
eISSN: 1099-1050
Grant note: R03 DE018394 || DE / National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research : NIDCR
Language: English
Date published: 01/2014
Academic Unit: Preventive and Community Dentistry; Health Management and Policy; Economics; Public Policy Center (Archive)
Record Identifier: 9984064195602771

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