Studies from University of Alabama Birmingham Further Understanding of Health and Medicine (Health Insurance and Differences In Infant Mortality Rates In the Us): Health and Medicine

2023 DEC 26 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Hospital & Nursing Home Daily -- A new study on Health and Medicine is now available. According to news reporting from Birmingham, Alabama, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Importance Health insurance status is associated with differences in access to health care and health outcomes. Therefore, maternal health insurance type may be associated with differences in infant outcomes in the US.Objective To determine whether, among infants born in the US, maternal private insurance compared with public Medicaid insurance is associated with a lower infant mortality rate (IMR).”

Funders for this research include National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA, American Heart Association.

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from the University of Alabama Birmingham, “Setting, and Participants This cohort study used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research expanded linked birth and infant death records database from 2017 to 2020. Hospital-born infants from 20 to 42 weeks of gestational age were included if the mother had either private or Medicaid insurance. Infants with congenital anomalies, those without a recorded method of payment, and those without either private insurance or Medicaid were excluded. Data analysis was performed from June 2022 to August 2023.Exposures Private vs Medicaid insurance.Main Outcomes and Measures The primary outcome was the IMR. Negative-binomial regression adjusted for race, sex, multiple birth, any maternal pregnancy risk factors (as defined by the CDC), education level, and tobacco use was used to determine the difference in IMR between private and Medicaid insurance. The chi(2) or Fisher exact test was used to compare differences in categorical variables between groups.Results Of the 13 562 625 infants included (6 631 735 girls [48.9%]), 7 327 339 mothers (54.0%) had private insurance and 6 235 286 (46.0%) were insured by Medicaid. Infants born to mothers with private insurance had a lower IMR compared with infants born to those with Medicaid (2.75 vs 5.30 deaths per 1000 live births; adjusted relative risk [aRR], 0.81; 95% CI, 0.69-0.95; P = .009). Those with private insurance had a significantly lower risk of postneonatal mortality (0.81 vs 2.41 deaths per 1000 births; aRR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.47-0.68; P< .001), low birth weight (aRR, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.85-0.94; P< .001), vaginal breech delivery (aRR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.67-0.96; P = .02), and preterm birth (aRR, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.88-0.97; P = .002) and a higher probability of first trimester prenatal care (aRR, 1.24; 95% CI, 1.21-1.27; P< .001) compared with those with Medicaid.Conclusions and Relevance In this cohort study, maternal Medicaid insurance was associated with increased risk of infant mortality at the population level in the US.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Novel strategies are needed to improve access to care, quality of care, and outcomes among women and infants enrolled in Medicaid.”

For more information on this research see: Health Insurance and Differences In Infant Mortality Rates In the Us. JAMA Network Open, 2023;6(10). JAMA Network Open can be contacted at: Amer Medical Assoc, 330 N Wabash Ave, Ste 39300, Chicago, IL 60611-5885, USA.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Colm P. Travers, University of Alabama Birmingham, Dept. of Pediatrics, 9380 Women & Infants Ctr, 1700 Sixth Ave S, Birmingham, AL 35233, United States. Additional authors for this research include Waldemar A. Carlo, Desalyn L. Johnson, Sarah G. Trulove, Mykaela J. Watt, A. K. M. Fazlur Rahman and Rachel Tindal.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.37690. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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