Maternal and Child Health Outcomes and Community Socioeconomic Characteristics in Peru

• In Event: 599 - Section on Sociology of Population Paper Session. Economic Inequality and Population Health

Abstract

Recent studies show that community poverty is associated with worse health outcomes in less developed countries, even after adjusting for individual- and household-level measures of socioeconomic status. However, there is a growing consensus that poverty is multidimensional, and prior research on the relationship between community-level deprivation and health outcomes has not examined which aspects of community poverty are most consequential for health. This article examines several aspects of community poverty, including physical environment, human capital, healthcare resources, social exclusion, and social capital, in order to evaluate which aspects are related to two types of health outcomes (those of children and their mothers) and whether they can account for regional health disparities in Peru. The analysis makes use of 2007-2008 Continuous Demography and Health Survey and regional data provided by the Peruvian government (N = 10,432 children and 8,550 mothers). The key findings are that 1) child health is more strongly associated with the local physical and social environment than the nutritional status of adult women is, 2) levels of social exclusion and female illiteracy in the local community are more closely related to women’s health than other aspects of community poverty and substantially account for regional disparities in women’s health, and 3) the distribution of healthcare resources neither has strong effects on child health nor explains regional differences in either type of health outcome. These findings suggest that not only physical and financial but also social deprivation in local communities are important correlates of health outcomes and regional health disparities.

Authors

• Heeju Shin, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

• Marcus L. Britton, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee