The Relationship between Ethnic Enclaves and Inadequate Prenatal Care Utilization among Mexican-origin Mothers

• In Event: 089 - Regular Session. Multiple Facets of the Social and Physical Environment on Health

Abstract

Using an ecosocial framework and a hierarchical linear modeling approach, I investigate the relationships between residing in different types of ethnic enclaves and adequate prenatal care utilization among Mexican-origin mothers. I find that Mexican-origin mothers’ residential contexts are important for having adequate prenatal care utilization. Specifically, residing in ethnic enclaves is associated with increased odds of having inadequate prenatal care utilization, while residing in non-Hispanic white neighborhoods is associated with decreased odds of having inadequate prenatal care utilization even after controlling for the availability of health care infrastructure at the contextual level. These findings have policy implications for designing place-based programs in order to target certain residential contexts in which women are at greater risk.

Author

• Aggie Jooyoung Noah, Pennsylvania State University