Journal of Women's Health Care
Open Access
ISSN: 2167-0420
ISSN: 2167-0420
Lai-Chu See
Chang Gung University, Taiwan
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Womens Health Care
Since 1998, the number of transnational marriages in Taiwan has been increasing considerably. Previous studies, using Taiwan Birth Registry (TBR), found that the incidence of preterm birth, low birth weight (LBW), and neonatal mortality was significantly lower in newborns of foreign-born mothers (FBMs) than those of Taiwanese-born mothers (TBMs). The major drawbacks of the TBR are: (1) the health conditions during pregnancy for the mothers are under-reported, (2) the comorbid conditions before pregnancy for the mothers and the social economical status (SES) are not available. Linking the National Health Insurance Research Data and TBR, we aim to: (1) compare the preterm birth, LBW between children of FBMs and those with TBMs, (2) Compare the health conditions before and during pregnancy for different groups of mothers, so that the magnitude and type of misclassification can be obtained and its effects can be examined correctly. From 2004-2012, 1,356,123 newborns were used. The sensitivity of most maternal problems, either predisposing pregnancy or during pregnancy, were from 3.5% (diabetes mellitus) to 88.0% (cardiac disease). The preterm birth % was higher in newborns of TBMs (7.1%) than newborns of FBMs (5.1%). After adjusted with significant factors in univariate analysis, the adjusted preterm birth was 0.74 (95% CI=0.71-0.76) when compared with newborns of TBMs. The LBW % was also higher in newborns of TBMs (5.8%) than newborns of FBMs (3.8%). The adjusted odds ratio of LBW was 0.63 (95% CI: 0.61-0.66) for newborns of FBMs, when compared with newborns of non-aboriginal TBMs.
Lai-Chu See has completed her PhD in Epidemiology at National Taiwan University on 1997. She is a Professor at the Department of Public Health, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taiwan. She has published 300 papers (123 in Chinese and 177 in English). She has been serving as an Editorial Board Member of International Journal of Surgery.