Photo Credit: artem_gribych
The following is a summary of “Neighborhood Disadvantage and Birth Outcomes Among Refugees,” published in the October 2024 issue of Pediatrics by Foverskov et al.
Refugee women in Denmark face varying levels of neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage, which may influence birth outcomes, including low birth weight (LBW), preterm birth (PTB), and small for gestational age (SGA).
Researchers conducted a retrospective study examining the link between neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage and birth outcomes among refugee women in Denmark.
The study analyzed data from 15,118 infants born to refugee women who arrived in Denmark (1986 and 1998) under a dispersal policy. Neighborhood disadvantage was measured using a composite income, education, unemployment, and welfare assistance index. Outcomes, including LBW, PTB, and SGA infants, adjusting for individual characteristics, were examined at resettlement, as well as other factors.
The results showed that each standard deviation (SD) increase in neighborhood disadvantage was linked with an 18% increase in the risk of LBW (0.61 percentage points [pp], 95% CI: 0.19–1.02), a 15% increase in the risk of PTB (0.64 pp, 95% CI: 0.22–1.07), and a 7% increase in the risk of SGA infants (0.78 pp, 95% CI: 0.01–1.54) 5 years after resettlement. Adjustments for urbanicity and conational density did not change the associations, but results were attenuated after adjusting for municipality-level fixed effects.
They concluded that resettling in disadvantaged neighborhoods increased the risk of adverse birth outcomes among refugee women.
