Academic Editor: Sandro Gerli
Background: Immigrants face various problems in accessing healthcare
because of lacking medical insurance. This study retrospectively evaluated the
effect of insurance on the prenatal care and the obstetric outcomes of immigrants
in South Korea. The main objective was to compare the obstetric complications
between uninsured and insured immigrants, and the secondary objective was to
compare the prenatal care and maternal nutrition during pregnancy.
Methods: Using data from the hospital records, we compared the perinatal
outcomes of insured and uninsured women who delivered at Buchoen St. Mary’s
Hospital between 2010 and 2020, including the sociodemographic data, prenatal
care, obstetric outcomes, and maternal nutrition. The association between
insurance status and the various perinatal outcomes of immigrants was assessed
using multivariate logistic regression, adjusting for potential confounding
variables. Results: In total, 320 immigrant women were included, and 52
(16%) were uninsured. Uninsured immigrants had fewer numbers and a later
initiation of prenatal care visits (7.75