Demographic characteristics of infants and families in the local and national studies
| Local study (North Tees) | National study (CESDI) | χ2* (n df) | p value | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n/N | (%) | n/N | (%) | |||
| Characteristics of the CESDI infants aged up to 1 month (N = 63) and 3–4 months (N = 176) were similar to the group as a whole. | ||||||
| *Using Yates’s corrected value. | ||||||
| †Fisher’s exact test. | ||||||
| ‡Including child in the study. | ||||||
| §Based on the Registrar General’s Occupational Coding using highest parental classification (I = professional to U = unemployed). | ||||||
| Infant factors | ||||||
| Sex (boys) | 134/259 | (51.7) | 571/1095 | (52.1) | 0.00 (1df) | 0.96 |
| Multiple birth | 3/259 | (1.2) | 7/1095 | (0.6) | – | 0.41† |
| Birth weight <2.5 kg | 5/259 | (1.9) | 55/1087 | (5.1) | 4.10 (1df) | 0.04 |
| Gestation <37 weeks | 10/233 | (4.3) | 59/1083 | (5.4) | 0.31 (1df) | 0.58 |
| Attempted to breast feed | 150/249 | (60.2) | 651/1095 | (59.5) | 0.02 (1df) | 0.87 |
| Family factors | ||||||
| Maternal | ||||||
| Age <21 years | 32/259 | (12.4) | 111/1095 | (10.1) | 0.97 (1df) | 0.33 |
| Marital status (single) | 13/253 | (5.1) | 57/1095 | (5.2) | 0.01 (1df) | 0.91 |
| Ethnicity (non-white) | 6/259 | (2.3) | 70/1095 | (6.4) | 5.82 (1df) | 0.02 |
| Parity >3‡ | 14/259 | (5.4) | 81/1095 | (7.4) | 0.99 (1df) | 0.32 |
| No waged income | 30/246 | (12.2) | 208/1094 | (19.0) | 5.93 (1df) | 0.02 |
| Socioeconomic status§ | ||||||
| I/II | 79/240 | (32.9) | 351/1093 | (32.1) | 5.32 (2df) | 0.07 |
| IIIm/n | 82/240 | (34.2) | 451/1093 | (41.3) | ||
| IV/V/U | 79/240 | (32.9) | 291/1093 | (26.6) | ||