Sponsor
Research reported in this publication was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute Of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R21HD087734.
Published In
Health Equity
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-2020
Subjects
Pregnancy -- Latina women, Systemic analysis
Abstract
Purpose: The impression that Latinas experience paradoxically good pregnancy outcomes in the United States persists, despite evidence showing that these outcomes are not enjoyed by all Latina subgroups. We conducted this systematic literature review to examine the relationship between documentation status and pregnancy outcomes among Latinas.
Methods: This review synthesizes empirical evidence on this relationship; examines how these studies define and operationalize documentation status; and makes recommendations of how a more comprehensive methodological approach can guide public health research on the impact of documentation status on Latina immigrants to the United States. We searched the literature within PubMed, Web of Science, Academic Search Premier, and Google Scholar in 2017 for relevant studies.
Results: Based on stringent inclusion criteria, we retained nine studies for analysis.
Conclusion: We found that evidence for the impact of documentation status on pregnancy outcomes among Latinas is not conclusive. We believe the divergence in our findings is, in part, due to variation in: conceptualization of how documentation status impacts pregnancy outcomes, sample populations, definitions of exposures and outcomes, and contextual factors included in models. Specific analytic challenges around sampling, measurement, and data analysis are identified. Suggestions for future research are offered regarding measurement of documentation status. Findings highlight the need for increased attention to documentation as an influence on Latina pregnancy outcomes.
Rights
© Dawn M. Richardson et al. 2020; Published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Locate the Document
DOI
10.1089/heq.2019.0126
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/33032
Citation Details
Richardson DM, Andrea SB, Ziring A, Robinson C, Messer LC (2020) Pregnancy outcomes and documentation status among Latina women: a systematic review, Health Equity 4:1, 158–182, DOI: 10.1089/heq.2019.0126.