Jessica Purser presents poster at the National Rural Health Association’s Annual Rural Health Conference
Jessica Purser, PhD-Candidate in ASPH Health Services Policy and Management program, presents poster, Provider Distance and Adverse Birth Outcomes in Teen Pregnancies in South Carolina at the NRHA's Annual Rural Health Conference
Jessica Purser is a graduate assistant within the SC Center for Rural and Primary Healthcare. This May, she presented research on adolescent adverse birth outcomes (low birth weight, preterm birth, or the two combined) and their association with distance to an OB/GYN provider. Using data from the SC Community Assessment Network, she mapped the rate of adverse birth outcomes to find areas where they were statistically higher and lower than average. Then using data from the SC CRPH, she calculated the distance between an OB/GYN provider and the zip code where the adolescents lived. While more adverse birth outcomes occurred in rural areas, the distance to an OB/GYN provider was not statistically significant, meaning that distance to an OB/GYN provider does not affect the rate of adolescent adverse birth outcomes. Instead, there has to be another explanation.
