Table 1

Social determinants related to specific infant health outcomes: summary results from meta-analyses

Health outcome	Social determinant	Prospective and case–control studies	Retrospective studies	Summary magnitude of effect^*, OR: most vs least deprived quintiles
Birth
Very low birth weight	Area deprivation		Bundred et al25	1.61 (1.31 to 1.97)
			Dibben et al26
			Paranjothy (2010, unpublished)
			Spencer et al27
Low birth weight	Area deprivation	Collingwood Bakeo and Clarke28	Bundred et al25	1.81 (1.71 to 1.92)
			Dibben et al26
			Gray et al29
			Paranjothy (2010, unpublished)
			Pattenden et al30
			Spencer et al27
	Lower social class		Fairley and Leyland31	1.79 (1.43 to 2.24)
			Maher and Macfarlane32
			Pattenden et al30
			Spencer et al27
Preterm birth (preterm/very preterm combined)	Area deprivation	Smith et al33	Gray et al34	1.67 (1.42 to 1.96)
		Smith et al33	Paranjothy (2010, unpublished)
		Yuan et al35	Paranjothy (2010, unpublished)
Stillbirth	Area deprivation		Gray et al29	1.54 (1.39 to 1.72)
Stillbirth	Area deprivation		Paranjothy (2010, unpublished)	1.54 (1.39 to 1.72)
Infant health
Infant mortality overall	Area deprivation		Dummer and Parker36	1.72 (1.37 to 2.15)
			Gray et al29
			Oakley et al37
	Lower social class		Dummer and Parker36	1.52 (1.44 to 1.61)
			Whitehead and Drever38
			Oakley et al37
Neonatal mortality	Area deprivation		Dummer and Parker36	1.61 (1.08 to 2.39)
			Gray et al29
			Smith et al39
	Lower social class		Dummer and Parker36	1.42 (1.33 to 1.51)
			Oakley et al37
			Whitehead and Drever38
Postneonatal mortality	Area deprivation		Dummer and Parker36	2.31 (2.03 to 2.64)
			Gray et al29
			Oakley et al37
	Lower social class		Dummer and Parker36	1.69 (1.53 to 1.87)
			Whitehead and Drever 38
			Oakley et al37
			Petrou et al40

↵* To avoid double counting, meta-analyses were carried out using only those studies without overlapping data.