Social Determinants of Maternal Health: Mapping County-level Maternal Mortality & Sociodemographic Indices in Texas, 2012-2013
Abstract
Despite spending nearly twice as much on healthcare per person as comparably wealthy countries, the U.S. has seen a marked increase in maternal deaths over the past 25 years. And in 2013, the state of Texas reported the highest maternal mortality in the developed world. I used factor analysis to examine 52 health and socioeconomic indicators to create four sociodemographic health indices, as many factors that affect maternal health and mortality are directly related to a mother’s social and demographic conditions. I then used each county’s index score to create county-level visualizations of conditions within the state of Texas, and compared these visualizations with corresponding maps of maternal mortality. The four indices resulting from this analysis represent entirely new groupings of economic and social indicators, and do not follow previous groupings observed in prior research. Initial visual comparisons reveal a marked correlation between maternal mortality and high levels of Social Instability, but further research will be needed to determine the nature of this and any other potential relationships between maternal health and sociodemographic conditions in Texas.
Subject Area
Epidemiology
Recommended Citation
Cooley, Alexia, "Social Determinants of Maternal Health: Mapping County-level Maternal Mortality & Sociodemographic Indices in Texas, 2012-2013" (2018). Texas Medical Center Dissertations (via ProQuest). AAI10843750.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/dissertations/AAI10843750