Pregnancy, social status and health in Sweden

The variations in reproductive outcome according to marital and social status are of major interest in many countries. It has however been suggested recently in Sweden that socio-economic characteristics do not in general have a substantial effect on reproductive performance. It is noted that women living alone report more general health symptoms than women cohabiting whether or not they are pregnant which appears to contradict previous results. On the other hand pregnant women living alone report more pregnancy related symptoms than pregnant women who are cohabiting. Moreover, in both cases, upper social groups tend to be healthier.