Women’s Health
Disparity of Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Obstetrical Complications between Multicultural Women and Korean Women in Korea: a Nationwide Population-Based Study Bomi Lee* Bomi Lee Soomin Kim Hyemin Jung Jin Yong Lee
Disparity of Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Obstetrical Complications between Multicultural Women and Korean Women in Korea: a Nationwide Population-Based Study
Bomi Lee¹, Soomin Kim¹, Hyemin Jung1, Jin Yong Lee1,2,3,†
1 Department of Health Policy and Management, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
2 Public Healthcare Center, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea
3 Institute of Health Policy and Management, Seoul National University Medical Research Center, Seoul, Korea
† Corresponding author
INTRODUCTION: In Korea, the number of immigrants and international marriages has steadily increased, with multicultural marriages accounting for 10.6% in 2023. However, multicultural women often face limited access to healthcare due to language and cultural barriers. Korea’s universal healthcare system supports various pregnancy and childbirth assistance policies for multicultural women. This study aims to investigate differences in pregnancy, childbirth, and obstetrical complications among multicultural women in Korea.
METHODS: Using the data of National Health Insurance (NHI) claims data, we extracted information on women who terminated pregnancy including delivery and abortion from January to December, 2023. We conducted Pearson’s chi-square test and Student’s t-test to examine the difference between multicultural and Korean women.
RESULTS: Of the 252,613 pregnancies, 14,540 (5.8%) were among multicultural women. The average age of multicultural women (31.0 years) was 2.3 years younger than that of Korean women (33.3 years), but the proportion of Medical Aids (1.9%) was 3.2 times higher than that of Korean women (0.6%). However, the abortion rate (24.3% vs. 26.0%) and the cesarean section rate (52.1% vs. 59.3%) were lower among multicultural women compared to Korean women, with no significant differences in most obstetric complications. Notably, the incidence rates of gestational hypertension (1.11% vs. 2.04%) and placenta previa (1.35% vs. 1.84%) were lower among multicultural women.
CONCLUSIONS: In most countries, immigrant mothers are reported to receive inadequate prenatal care and experience worse delivery outcomes than their native-born counterparts due to limited access to healthcare. However, these results suggest that the lower rates of abortion and cesarean section among multicultural women may be attributed to their younger maternal age. As this study shows, if universal health coverage is provided to all mothers, the differences can be minimized or even disappear.
