Maternal socio-economic indices for prenatal care research in rural China

The conceptualization and measurement of socio-economic status (SES) is difficult in developing settings. In the absence of SES indices for women in rural China, we constructed SES indices for prenatal care research, and examined their relation to perinatal care and outcomes.

This study utilized data of 4364 rural women having recently given birth, collected by a cross-sectional survey in three rural Chinese provinces in 2007. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to construct the SES indices and multilevel logistic regression was use to relate the indices to low birthweight, short exclusive breastfeeding (≤4 months), childbirth at the county or higher level health facility, caesarean section, inadequate prenatal care and no postnatal care.

Three separate SES indices (wealth, occupational and educational indices) were obtained from the PCA analysis, capturing maternal, paternal and household SES characteristics. After adjusting for individual level factors, village and township wealth, higher levels of the indices were inversely associated with inadequate prenatal care. Higher occupational status was positively associated with short exclusive breastfeeding and childbirth at the county or higher level health facility, but inversely associated with no postnatal care. Higher educational status was positively associated with no postnatal care.

Three SES indices (wealth, occupational and educational) were obtained from this study for prenatal care research. The indices gave mostly varying results on their associations with perinatal care and outcomes, indicating that SES measures may be outcome-specific.