Abstract
Objective
To identify factors associated with the birth of children of immigrants in southern Brazil.
Methods
This is a cross-sectional study with data on births that occurred in the state of Paraná, from 2014 to 2019, obtained from the Live Birth Information System. The step wise forward method, Poisson multiple regression and Prevalence Ratios (PR) were used in the analysis, being considered when p ≤ 0.005.
Results
Of the 948,316 births, 12,665 (1.33%) were children of immigrants. Factors associated with the birth of children of immigrants were: mother’s age between 20 and 34 years (PR: 1.36; CI: 1.20-1.55), non-white race/color (PR: 1.90; CI: 1.77-2.03), higher education (PR: 2.15; CI: 1.97-2.34), four living children (PR: 0.58; CI: 0.45-0.74). The associated perinatal characteristics were late onset of prenatal care, in the second trimester (PR:1.29; CI:1.16-1.43) and in the third trimester (PR: 2.14; CI: 1.73-2.65), pelvic or foot presentation (PR: 0.74; CI: 0.63-0.86), Apgar <7 in the 1st minute (PR: 1.30; CI: 1.14-1.47), absence of previous cesarean delivery (PR:1.20; CI:1.12-1.28) and low birth weight (PR: 0.79; CI: 0.70-0.90). They were also associated with factors, father age, responsible for filling out the statement and the category of ignored data in different variables.
Conclusion
The main factors associated with the birth of children of immigrants were: higher education, lower ratio of cesarean delivery and low birth weight newborns, lower Apgar score at the 1st minute, late start of prenatal care and number of variables ignored when filling out the statement, signaling specificities of immigrants to be considered in planning the health actions, especially regarding early access to prenatal care services.
Emigrants and immigrants; Prenatal care; Perinatal care; Social support