Does Neighbourhood Crime Mediate the Relationship between Neighbourhood Socioeconomic Status and Birth Outcomes?: An Application of the Mediational G-Formula

Lizbeth Burgos Ochoa; Maarten J Bijlsma; Eric A P Steegers; Jasper V Been; Loes C M Bertens

doi:10.1093/aje/kwad037

Does Neighbourhood Crime Mediate the Relationship between Neighbourhood Socioeconomic Status and Birth Outcomes? An Application of the Mediational G-Formula

Lizbeth Burgos Ochoa^*, Maarten J Bijlsma, Eric A P Steegers, Jasper V Been, Loes C M Bertens

^*Corresponding author for this work

University Medical Centre Groningen

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

6 Citations (Web of Science)

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Abstract

While the link between living in low socioeconomic status (SES) neighbourhoods and a higher risk of adverse birth outcomes has been well established, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Using the parametric g-formula, we assess the role of neighbourhood crime as potential mediator for the relationship between neighbourhood SES and birth outcomes using data on singleton births occurring in the Netherlands between 2010 and 2017 (n = 1,219,470). We estimated total and mediated effects of neighbourhood SES on small for gestational age (SGA), low birthweight (LBW), and preterm birth (PTB) via three types of crime (violent crimes, crimes against property and crimes against public order). The g-formula intervention settings correspond to a hypothetical improvement in neighbourhood SES. The hypothetical improvement in neighbourhood SES resulted in a 6.6% (95%CI=5.6,7.5) reduction in the proportion of SGA, a 9.1% (95%CI=7.6,10.6) reduction in LBW, and a 5.8% (95%CI=5.7,6.2) decrease in PTB. Neighbourhood crime jointly accounted for 28.1% and 8.6% of the total effect on SGA and LBW, respectively. For PTB, we found no evidence of mediation. The most relevant pathways were crimes against property and crimes against public order. The results indicate that neighbourhood crime mediates a meaningful share of the relationship between neighbourhood SES and birth outcomes.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	939-948
Number of pages	10
Journal	American Journal of Epidemiology
Volume	192
Issue number	6
Early online date	Feb 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwad037
Publication status	Published - 1 Jun 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Erasmus Initiative “Smarter Choices for Better Health.”

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (.

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Cite this

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title = "Does Neighbourhood Crime Mediate the Relationship between Neighbourhood Socioeconomic Status and Birth Outcomes?: An Application of the Mediational G-Formula",

abstract = "While the link between living in low socioeconomic status (SES) neighbourhoods and a higher risk of adverse birth outcomes has been well established, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Using the parametric g-formula, we assess the role of neighbourhood crime as potential mediator for the relationship between neighbourhood SES and birth outcomes using data on singleton births occurring in the Netherlands between 2010 and 2017 (n = 1,219,470). We estimated total and mediated effects of neighbourhood SES on small for gestational age (SGA), low birthweight (LBW), and preterm birth (PTB) via three types of crime (violent crimes, crimes against property and crimes against public order). The g-formula intervention settings correspond to a hypothetical improvement in neighbourhood SES. The hypothetical improvement in neighbourhood SES resulted in a 6.6\% (95\%CI=5.6,7.5) reduction in the proportion of SGA, a 9.1\% (95\%CI=7.6,10.6) reduction in LBW, and a 5.8\% (95\%CI=5.7,6.2) decrease in PTB. Neighbourhood crime jointly accounted for 28.1\% and 8.6\% of the total effect on SGA and LBW, respectively. For PTB, we found no evidence of mediation. The most relevant pathways were crimes against property and crimes against public order. The results indicate that neighbourhood crime mediates a meaningful share of the relationship between neighbourhood SES and birth outcomes.",

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Does Neighbourhood Crime Mediate the Relationship between Neighbourhood Socioeconomic Status and Birth Outcomes? An Application of the Mediational G-Formula. / Ochoa, Lizbeth Burgos; Bijlsma, Maarten J; Steegers, Eric A P et al.
In: American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 192, No. 6, 01.06.2023, p. 939-948.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

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