Neighbourhood-level deprivation indices and postpartum women's health: results from the Community Child Health Network (CCHN) multi-site study

Background Area-level socioeconomic characteristics have been shown to be related to health status and mortality however, little is known about the association between residential community characteristics in relation to postpartum women's health. Methods Data from the longitudinal, multi-site Community Child Health Network (CCHN) study were used. Postpartum women (n = 2510), aged 18-40 were recruited from 2008 to 2012 within a month of delivery. Socioeconomic data was used to create deprivation indices. Census data were analysed using principal components analysis (PCA) and logistic regression to assess the association between deprivation indices (DIs) and various health indicators. Results PCA resulted in two unique DIs that accounted for 67.5% of the total variance of the combined all-site area deprivation. The first DI was comprised of variables representing a high percentage of Hispanic or Latina, foreign-born individuals, dense households (more than one person per room of residence), with less than a high-school education, and who spent more than 30% of their income on housing costs. The second DI was comprised of a high percentage of African-Americans, single mothers, and high levels of unemployment. In a multivariate logistic regression model, using the quartiles of each DI, women who reside in the geographic area of Q4-Q2 of the second DI, were almost twice as likely to have more than three adverse health conditions compared to those who resided in the least deprived areas. (Q2vs.Q1:OR = 2.09,P = 0.001,Q3vs.Q1:OR = 1.89,P = 0.006,Q4vs.Q1:OR = 1.95,P = 0.004 respectively). Conclusions Our results support the utility of examining deprivation indices as predictors of maternal postpartum health.