Employment, Unemployment and the Health of Pregnant Women

Much of what little we know about the impact of unemployment or health is based upon data or studies of predominantly unemployed men. These studies, though weak in methodology, imply that unemployment may lead to excess morbidity and mortality. This paper reports a study of 4,000 pregnant women in Brisbane. Unemployment amongst women is associated with high-risk health behaviour, which in turn may lead to low birthweight births. Further, unemployed women are more anxious and depressed than are employed women. The mental health of the mother appears to be more closely related to the employment status of her spouse than to her own employment status

Social Class, Religion And Contraceptive Failure In A Sample Of Pregnant Women In Brisbane

The reproductive intent of women at the time of conception has been largely ignored in the social science and epidemiological literature. This is surprising in view of its likely relevance to a wide range of health and welfare issues. Despite the possible short and long term consequences of unplanned reproductive activity, it appears that we know a good deal more about the factors influencing decisions to acquire many consumer goods than we do about the factors influencing the decision to reproduce. The easy availability of contraception and a high level of literacy may contribute to an assumption that women have considerable control over their fertility. The received wisdom relating to reproductive intent suggests that most women are pregnant because they planned their pregnancy. In this study a large sample (4000) of pregnant women were asked about the beginning of their pregnancies. Women were specifically asked about the method of contraception they last used and whether their pregnancy was a consequence of a failure of contraception. Social, economic and religious variables were examined to assess the extent to which these were associated with differing rates of contraceptive failure

Unemployment and Reproductive Outcome: An Australian study

The Mater-University of Queensland Study involves the follow-up of 8556 pregnant women who were enrolled at their first clinic visit. This analysis compares four groups of women categorized according to their own and their partners' employment status. Group 1 comprised women unemployed, partners not unemployed. Group 2 comprised women not unemployed with unemployed partners. Group 3 comprised women and partners who were both unemployed. In group 4 neither partner was unemployed. Initial analysis showed that there was a significant association between birthweight and birthweight for gestational age, and unemployment as reported by mothers. After adjustment for lifestyle variables (principally smoking) there were no remaining statistically significant associations

Birthweight below the tenth percentile: the relative and attributable risks of maternal tobacco consumption and other factors.

Analysis of 7776 singleton births defined a cohort of babies with birthweight below the 10th percentile after adjusting for gestational age and sex. The relative risk of a baby being small for gestational age in respect to a number of factors, such as parental anthropometry, demographic factors, behavior patterns (tobacco, cannabis, alcohol, and caffeine consumption), maternal pathology, and fetal abnormality, was calculated. The highest relative risks are associated with severe antepartum hemorrhage, severe pre-eclampsia, and severe fetal abnormality. As these are relatively rare events, a more accurate calculation of overall risk to the population as opposed to the individual can be obtained by studying the percent attributable risk of each of the factors. This demonstrates that maternal tobacco consumption is the major environmental risk factor in our population

Distinguishing cancerous from non-cancerous cells through analysis of electrical noise

Since 1984, electric cell-substrate impedance sensing (ECIS) has been used to monitor cell behavior in tissue culture and has proven sensitive to cell morphological changes and cell motility. We have taken ECIS measurements on several cultures of non-cancerous (HOSE) and cancerous (SKOV) human ovarian surface epithelial cells. By analyzing the noise in real and imaginary electrical impedance, we demonstrate that it is possible to distinguish the two cell types purely from signatures of their electrical noise. Our measures include power-spectral exponents, Hurst and detrended fluctuation analysis, and estimates of correlation time; principal-component analysis combines all the measures. The noise from both cancerous and non-cancerous cultures shows correlations on many time scales, but these correlations are stronger for the non-cancerous cells.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures; submitted to PR

A Prospective Longitudinal Study of Social, Psychological and Obstetric Factors in Pregnancy: Response Rates and Demographic Characteristics of the 8556 Respondents

This paper introduces the Mater Misericordiae Mothers' Hospital-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy, a prospective study of 8556 pregnant women interviewed at their first clinic visit, and subsequently interviewed some days after the birth of the baby and again 6 months later. Additional data were derived from the medical record of the pregnancy and delivery. The study was designed to assess the impact of social, psychological and obstetric factors on pregnancy outcome. We present here details of the study design, sampling, response rates and demographic characteristics of the sample

The Population Structure of Ten Newfoundland Outports

This is the published version. Copyright 2000 Wayne State University Press.Island populations are most informative in the study of the genetic structure of human aggregates. These populations are often of small size, thus violating the Hardy-Weinberg assumption of infinite size. Some geographically isolated island populations are further subdivided by religion, ethnicity, and socioeconomic factors, reducing their effective sizes and facilitating genetic changes due to stochastic processes. Because of extreme geographic and social isolation, fishing communities or outports of Newfoundland have been investigated for genetic micro-differentiation through the founder effect and genetic drift (Crawford et al. 1995). The purpose of this paper is to examine the population structure of 10 Newfoundland outports using the allelic frequencies derived from 12 red cell antigens. To achieve this goal, first we calculated gene frequencies using maximum-likelihood estimation procedures. Second, we used /{-matrix methods to explore population differentiation. Third, we regressed mean per-locus heterozygosity on genetic distance from the gene frequency centroid to identify the most isolated populations. On the basis of this information, the three outports of Seal Cove, Island Harbor, and Tilting were found to be genetically differentiated from the other small populations. Moreover, religious and geographic subdivisions appear to explain the observed genetic variation

Socio-Economic Status and Pregnancy Outcome: An Australian Study

A prospective cohort of 8556 pregnant women attending the Mater Misericordiae Mothers' Hospital in Brisbane was examined to consider the impact of socio-economic status on pregnancy outcome. The indicators of socio-economic status selected were family income, maternal education and paternal occupational status. Pregnancy outcomes considered were preterm delivery, low birthweight, low birthweight for gestational age, and perinatal death. Subsidiary analyses were also undertaken for Apgar scores, time to establish respiration, need for mechanical respiration and admission to intensive care. Before adjustment, the main consistent association was between the occupational status of the father and three measures of perinatal morbidity. Initial adjustment for the mother's socio-demographic background and weight/height ratio reduced the strength and statistical significance of the above associations, while further adjustment for lifestyle variations between the three status groups further reduced the above associations to marginal statistical significance. The findings suggest that observed class differences in pregnancy outcome are attributable to the mother's personal characteristics (height/weight, parity) and her lifestyle

Differential exposure and reactivity to interpersonal stress predict sex differences in adolescent depression

This study tested the hypothesis that higher rates of depression in adolescent girls are explained by their greater exposure and reactivity to stress in the interpersonal domain in a large sample of 15-year-olds. Findings indicate that adolescent girls experienced higher levels of total and interpersonal episodic stress, whereas boys experienced higher levels of chronic stress (academic and close friendship domains). Higher rates of depression in girls were explained by their greater exposure to total stress, particularly interpersonal episodic stress. Adolescent girls were also more reactive (more likely to become depressed) to both total and interpersonal episodic stress. The findings suggest that girls experience higher levels of episodic stress and are more reactive to these stressors, increasing their likelihood of becoming depressed compared to boys. Results were discussed in terms of girls' greater interpersonal focus and implications for understanding sex differences in depression