Scienceblogtwo

According to a recent Oregon State University study, women who live in areas with lower socioeconomic mobility have a 20% lower chance of becoming pregnant at any given time than women who live in areas with more resources. The study evaluated "fecundability," or the chance of getting pregnant on a monthly basis, among couples trying to get pregnant naturally. Researchers compared neighborhoods using the "area deprivation index" score, which is a gauge of a neighborhood's socioeconomic resources. They found that even within a reasonably well-off, highly educated research population, fecundity rates were lower in less affluent neighborhoods than in more affluent ones. "Research on fertility is starting to look at elements related to the built environment. The pre-conception period is structurally understudied, according to lead author Mary Willis, a postdoctoral scholar in OSU's College of Public Health and Human Sciences. "There are dozens of studi...