Kanwaljeet J S Anand, Joseph Rigdon, Cynthia R Rovnaghi, FeiFei Qin, Sahil Tembulkar, Nicole Bush, Kaja LeWinn, Frances A Tylavsky, Robert Davis, Donald A Barr, Ian H Gotlib
Author Information
Kanwaljeet J S Anand: Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA. ORCID
Joseph Rigdon: Quantitative Sciences Unit, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
Cynthia R Rovnaghi: Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
FeiFei Qin: Quantitative Sciences Unit, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
Sahil Tembulkar: Pain/Stress Neurobiology Lab, Women& Child Health Research Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
Nicole Bush: Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Kaja LeWinn: Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Frances A Tylavsky: Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center (UTHSC), Memphis, TN, USA.
Robert Davis: Department of Pediatrics, University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center (UTHSC), Memphis, TN, USA.
Donald A Barr: Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
Ian H Gotlib: Department of Psychology, Stanford University School of Humanities& Sciences, San Francisco, CA, USA.
AIM: Early life adversity leads to enduring effects on physical and mental health, school performance and other outcomes. We sought to identify potentially modifiable factors associated with socioeconomic adversity in early life. METHODS: We enrolled 1503 pregnant women aged 16-40 years, without pregnancy complications or pre-existing conditions from Shelby County, Tennessee. Social, familial and economic variables were analysed using principal components (PCs) analyses to generate the Socioeconomic Adversity Index (SAI). This was replicated using the National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH). Health and social outcomes were compared across the quintile groups defined by SAI values at the county, state and national levels. RESULTS: Significant differences occurred across the SAI Quintile-1 to Quintile-5 groups in marital status, household structure, annual income, education and health insurance. Significantly worse health and social outcomes occurred in the lower versus higher SAI quintiles, including maternal depression, parental incarceration, child's birthweight and potential for child abuse. Maternal age and race also differed significantly across the SAI quintiles. CONCLUSION: Modifiable factors contributing to socioeconomic adversity in early life included marital status, household structure, annual income, education and health insurance. Those exposed to greater socioeconomic adversity as defined by SAI values had significantly worse maternal and child outcomes.
