(39) Maternal Economic Mobility and Infant SGA Rates: The Effect of Father’s Early-life Socioeconomic Position

Blair A. Simon, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States; James Collins, Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital, United States; Shayna D. Hibbs, McGaw Medical Center/Northwestern, United States; Kristin Rankin, University of Illinois- Chicago, United States

Background: SGA (weight for gestational age < 10th %ile) infants are at increased risk first-year mortality, morbidity, and childhood mortality. Previous studies show that women’s changing economic position is associated with infant SGA rates. Paternal socioeconomic position has received increased research as a major contributor to adverse birth outcome.Paternal low SEP has been associated with an increased risk of SGA independent of maternal demographic characteristics (Enstad et al, MCHH, 2019). The extent to which paternal SEP modifies the relationship between maternal economic mobility and infant SGA rates is unknown.

Objectives: This study aims to investigate the relationship between maternal economic mobility, paternal SEP, and infant SGA rates.

Design/Methods: Stratified and multilevel logistic regression analyses were executed on the Illinois transgenerational dataset of parents (born 1956-1976) and their infants (born 1989-1991) with appended U.S. census income information. The study was limited to singleton infants born in the Chicago metropolitan area to impoverished-born (defined as early-life residence in the lowest or highest quartile census tract income distribution or the geographically broader community area for the 1956-1960 cohort) of Chicago-born mothers and whose fathers were acknowledged on their birth certificate. Father’s early-life SEP was defined by neighborhood income at the time of his birth.

Results: The incidence of impoverished-born women’s upward economic mobility among births (n=3,777) with early-life low SEP fathers was less than that of those (n= 576) with early-life high SEP fathers: 56% vs 71%, respectively, p < 0.01. The incidence of affluent-born women’s downward economic mobility among births (n=2,370) with early-life low SEP fathers exceeded that of those (n=3,822) with early-life high SEP fathers: 79% vs 65%, respectively, p < 0.01. The adjusted RR of infant SGA for maternal upward economic mobility among fathers with early-life low and high SEP equaled 0.68 (0.56, 0.82) and 0.81 (0.47, 1.42), respectively. The adjusted RR of infant SGA for maternal downward (compared to lifelong residence in affluent neighborhoods) economic mobility among fathers with early-life low and high SEP were 1.37 (0.91, 2.05) and 1.17 (0.86, 1.59), respectively.

Conclusion: Paternal early-life SEP is associated with maternal economic mobility; with no observed impact on the relationship between maternal economic mobility and SGA rate.