Purpose: Social determinants of health (SDoH) and rurality have both been shown to contribute to severe maternal morbidity (SMM). Appalachian communities often embody this compounded risk, but regional SMM is under-explored. This study’s purpose is to explore SMM in rural areas of Appalachian states.
Aims: There are two specific aims. 1) Describe the prevalence of rural SMM in Appalachian states. 2) Investigate the relationship between SMM and SDoH, specifically income, education, and care access.
Methods: An IRB exempt, descriptive correlational study was conducted. Birth data (2018-2022) were extracted from the CDC WONDER database for 12 Appalachian states. Demographic, income, and education data were obtained from the U.S. Census. Access was measured by March of Dimes (MoD) maternity care categorizations. Descriptive statistics and Pearson’s correlations were conducted in IBM SPSS.
Results: Rural SMM rates correlated with poverty (r =.803, p
Conclusions: This study describes rural SMM in Appalachian states, showing correlation with poverty, education, and maternity care access. Limited access to care is correlated with a higher SMM burden for rural areas. This points to the need for further exploration into rural SMM, and the interplay of SDoH and geography in relation to maternal health.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ETSU/oai:dc.etsu.edu:es-conf-1138 |
| Date | 11 April 2024 |
| Creators | Usedom, Kathryn, MSN, FNP-C, CNM, Yeh, Pi-Ming, PhD |
| Publisher | Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University |
| Source Sets | East Tennessee State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation |
| Source | Epsilon Sigma at-Large Research Conference |
Page generated in 0.0021 seconds