The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #47377

Katherine L. Frohlich, PhD¹, Louise Seguin, MD, MPH², Qian Xu, MD, MPH², and Louise Potvin, PhD². (1) Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Montreal, C.P. 6128 succursale Centre-ville, Montreal, QC H3C 3J7, Canada, (514) 343-6430, katherine.frohlich@umontreal.ca, (2) Department of social and preventive medicine, Université de Montréal, P.O. Box 6128, Centre Ville, Montreal, QC H3C 3J7, Canada

Healthy debate is currently underway regarding the relative contribution that measures of socio-economic status (SES) versus poverty play in explaining disease and developmental outcomes in infants and children. Whether measures of SES or poverty are most effective at predicting disease outcomes, and what these concepts are actually measuring, are unresolved issues across epidemiologic studies. The aims of this study are to compare the percentage change in the variance accounted for by SES and poverty in models that predict the perceived health of infants over time. Data comes from the Longitudinal Study of Child Development in Quebec, Canada (ELDEQ), a cohort study of a representative sample of 2,223 infants who were an average of five months at the time of first interview. This study uses data from two waves of data collection; the first interview (T1), in 1998, and 29 months later (T2). The full models at both T1 and T2 include the child’s gender, exact age (in months), a neonatal risk score that gives an indication of the health problems presented by the child at birth, the family’s income and the mother’s education. We then compared partial models at both T1 and T2 taking out family income in one, and education in another. The chi square associated with education at T1 is 6.08 at 2 degrees of freedom whereas that associated with income was 11.90 at 2 degrees of freedom. At T2, however, the chi square associated with education is 5.07 at 2 degrees of freedom and with income is 3.23. Some theoretical reasons for these surprising findings will be discussed.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant should be able to

• recognize that measures of poverty and socio-economic status differ in terms of their predictive ability regarding infant health.
• describe why poverty may play more of a role in children's health in the first year of life
• describe why mother's education may be more important for child health later in the infant's life.

Keywords: Child Health, Poverty

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec.
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.