TY - JOUR
T1 - Do Cesarean Delivery rates rise when the economy declines? A test of the economic stress hypothesis
AU - Viluma, Laura
PY - 2020/1
Y1 - 2020/1
N2 - A growing body of research supports the Barker hypothesis that adverse conditions around the time of birth have a negative effect on health. Nevertheless, the mechanisms linking early life conditions with health are still unclear. This paper investigates one of such potential mechanisms, specifically, ambient stress, by analyzing the effect of economic downturns as a stressor on the probability of Cesarean Delivery (CD). I focus particularly on male CD since the literature reports that male fetuses are more sensitive to stressors in utero than female fetuses. Using data from Lifelines, a large cohort study from the northern Netherlands, I show that the probability of CD for male babies increases when unemployment levels rise. This result suggests that maternal stress might be one of the mechanisms how early life economic conditions affect health.
AB - A growing body of research supports the Barker hypothesis that adverse conditions around the time of birth have a negative effect on health. Nevertheless, the mechanisms linking early life conditions with health are still unclear. This paper investigates one of such potential mechanisms, specifically, ambient stress, by analyzing the effect of economic downturns as a stressor on the probability of Cesarean Delivery (CD). I focus particularly on male CD since the literature reports that male fetuses are more sensitive to stressors in utero than female fetuses. Using data from Lifelines, a large cohort study from the northern Netherlands, I show that the probability of CD for male babies increases when unemployment levels rise. This result suggests that maternal stress might be one of the mechanisms how early life economic conditions affect health.
KW - Cesarean Delivery
KW - Cohort studies
KW - Early-life conditions
KW - Health
KW - Stress
KW - Unemployment
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85072252558&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ehb.2019.100816
DO - 10.1016/j.ehb.2019.100816
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85072252558
SN - 1570-677X
VL - 36
JO - Economics and Human Biology
JF - Economics and Human Biology
M1 - 100816
ER -