IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v51y2000i4p539-550.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Searching for socioeconomic risk factors in perinatal mortality in Kuwait: a case control study

Author

Listed:
  • Shah, Nasra M.
  • Shah, Makhdoom A.
  • Khalaf, Abdul Aziz
  • Mustafa, Mustafa Mohammad
  • Al-Sayed, Ali

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to investigate whether socioeconomic factors such as parent's education, occupation, and income constitute risk factors in perinatal mortality after controlling for biological variables such as birth weight and length of gestation, and maternal factors such as age, parity and reproductive history. A case-control study covering all perinatal deaths in Kuwait was conducted for one year from 1 October, 1997 to 30 September, 1998. Each case (perinatal death) was matched with a control (live birth). Matching criteria were: father's nationality, place, and date of birth. Information was successfully collected on 463 matched pairs, 274 Kuwaitis and 189 non-Kuwaitis. Only singleton births were included in the analysis. Bivariate analysis showed that several of the socioeconomic variables (e.g. lower education, lower income) increased the risk of a perinatal death. However, none of these variables remained significant in the multivariate analysis in which birth weight and length of gestation emerged as the two major determinants of perinatal deaths among both nationality groups. Among the Kuwaitis, primiparity and high parity, and previous history of miscarriage were also significant risk factors. Among the non-Kuwaitis, none of the socioeconomic factors, or the maternal factors, were significant predictors of perinatal mortality. For Kuwaitis, it appears that the government's policies and programs aimed at reducing social inequalities in the society have been effective in eliminating perinatal mortality differences between socioeconomic groups. Among non-Kuwaitis, the lack of differences is reflective of the fact that this group is relatively homogenous and selective of the more affluent who can bring the family to Kuwait. Both nationality groups benefit from the government's free health services. However, charges for non-Kuwaitis are due to be levied soon which may increase disparities in access to health care.

Suggested Citation

  • Shah, Nasra M. & Shah, Makhdoom A. & Khalaf, Abdul Aziz & Mustafa, Mustafa Mohammad & Al-Sayed, Ali, 2000. "Searching for socioeconomic risk factors in perinatal mortality in Kuwait: a case control study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 539-550, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:51:y:2000:i:4:p:539-550
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(99)00485-2
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pramesh Raj Ghimire & Kingsley E. Agho & Blessing J. Akombi & Nidhi Wali & Michael Dibley & Camille Raynes-Greenow & Andre M. N. Renzaho, 2018. "Perinatal Mortality in South Asia: Systematic Review of Observational Studies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-12, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:51:y:2000:i:4:p:539-550. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.