BMJ Open
Volume 6, Issue 2, 2016

Immigrant mothers and access to prenatal care: Evidence from a regional population study in Italy (Article) (Open Access)

Chiavarini M. , Lanari D. , Minelli L. , Pieroni L. , Salmasi L.*
  • a Unit of Public Health, Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy
  • b Department of Medicine, University of Perugia, Piazzale Lucio Severi, Perugia, Italy
  • c Unit of Public Health, Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy
  • d Department of Political Science, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy
  • e Department of Political Science, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

Abstract

Objectives: We addressed the question of whether use of adequate prenatal care differs between foreignborn and Italian mothers and estimated the extent to which unobservable characteristics bias results. Setting: This study is on primary care and especially on adequate access to prenatal healthcare services by immigrant mothers. Participants: Approximately 37 000 mothers of both Italian and foreign nationality were studied. Data were obtained from the Standard Certificate of Live Birth between 2005 and 2010 in Umbria. Results: Estimates from the bivariate probit model indicate that immigrant mothers are three times more likely to make fewer than four prenatal visits (OR=3.35) and 1.66 times more likely to make a late first visit (OR=1.66). The effect is found to be strongest for Asian women. Conclusions: Standard probit models lead to underestimation of the probability of inadequate use of prenatal care services by immigrant women, whereas bivariate probit models, which allow us to consider immigrant status as an endogenous variable, estimated ORs to be three times larger than those obtained with univariate models.

Author Keywords

[No Keywords available]

Index Keywords

immigrant Asian primary medical care prenatal care human controlled study probability Humans migrant model Emigrants and Immigrants female Socioeconomic Factors socioeconomics pregnancy population research adult mother human experiment utilization live birth Italy statistical model endogenous variable Health Services Accessibility health care delivery
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84960395073&doi=10.1136%2fbmjopen-2015-008802&partnerID=40&md5=cdb12912906c84007aa3f53e9f5b0eed
DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-008802
ISSN: 20446055
Cited by: 2
Original Language: English