Descriptive Epidemiology

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Descriptive Epidemiology and Prevalence
Pregnant women living in the border between the US and Mexico receive less appropriate prenatal care than non-border states. The binational study conducted in 2009 by McDonald, Argotsinger, Mojarro, Rochat, and Amatya (2015), shows that 68.8% of border mothers received early prenatal care compared to 72.9% of non-border mothers. The states with the highest prevalence of late care was New Mexico (13% - 36%), followed by Arizona and California. In comparison between the two countries, Mexico had a higher early prenatal care of pregnant women who lived in the border. As it is mentioned above, the state of New Mexico has been recognized with the highest incidence of late prenatal care, which represents
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According to Child Health USA (2013), receiving prenatal care in the first trimester also is related to maternal education, early prenatal care entry increasing with greater educational attainment. For instance, in 2010, first trimester prenatal care was obtained by only 57.6 % of women with less than a high school diploma, compared to 86.7 percent of mothers with a bachelor’s degree or higher. On the other hand, only 2.5 percent of mothers with a bachelor’s degree received late or no prenatal care, compared to 11.6 percent of mothers with less than a high school diploma. Despite the fact that more Hispanics are obtaining higher education than ever before, Hispanics still are below compared to other groups in obtaining a four-year degree diploma. In 2013, only 15% of the Hispanics ages 25 to 29 achieved a bachelor’s degree or higher. In contrast to other ethnicity groups of the same age, for example, African-American 20%, whites 40%, and Asians 60%. The researchers stated that the disparity between Hispanics and other groups is associated with the fact that Hispanics do not take the determination of enroll in a four-year degree program, attend to a selective college, and register as a full-time student (Pew Researcher Center,