Comparison of the use of prenatal care services and the risk of preterm birth between pregnant women with disabilities and those without disabilities: A nationwide cohort study

Meng-Bin Tang; Pei-Tseng Kung; Li-Ting Chiu; Wen-Chen Tsai

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2023.1090051

Comparison of the use of prenatal care services and the risk of preterm birth between pregnant women with disabilities and those without disabilities: A nationwide cohort study

Front Public Health. 2023 Jan 27:11:1090051. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1090051. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Meng-Bin Tang^{1

2

3}, Pei-Tseng Kung^{4

5}, Li-Ting Chiu², Wen-Chen Tsai²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Public Health, Graduate Institute of Public Health, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
² Department of Health Services Administration, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
³ Department of Family Medicine, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Healthcare Administration, Asia University, Taichung, Taiwan.
⁵ Department of Medical Research, China Medical University Hospital, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.

Abstract

Objective: The difficulties faced by pregnant women with disabilities in accessing health care may make them less likely to receive prenatal care. The aims of this study were to compare the number of prenatal services and the risk of preterm birth between pregnant women with and without disabilities.

Methods: A total of 2999 pregnant women aged ≥20 years with birth records in 2011-2014 in Taiwan were enrolled. Data were obtained from the Registration File for Physical and Mental Disabilities and the National Health Insurance Research Database. A 1:4 matching between pregnant women with disabilities and those without disabilities was performed. The logistic regression analysis with generalized estimating equations was used to analyze.

Results: The median of prenatal care services used by pregnant women with disabilities was 9.00 (interquartile range, IQR: 2.00). Pregnant women with disabilities used fewer services than those without disabilities (median, 10.00; IQR: 1.00). The disabled group (8.44%) had a significantly higher proportion of preterm births than did the non-disabled group (5.40%). The disabled group was at a 1.30 times higher risk of preterm births than was the non-disabled group.

Conclusions: Pregnant women with disabilities used significantly fewer prenatal care services and had a significantly higher risk of preterm birth than pregnant women without disabilities.

Keywords: disabled women; disparity in prenatal care; pregnant women with disability; prenatal care; preterm birth.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Cohort Studies
Disabled Persons*
Female
Humans
Infant, Newborn
Pregnancy
Pregnant Women
Premature Birth* / epidemiology
Prenatal Care

Grants and funding

This research was supported by Asia University and China Medical University Hospital (ASIA-109-CMUH-09). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.