Andreea Mitrut (University of Gothenburg) 24.4.2025

It is our pleasure that Andreea Mitrut (University of Gothenburg) will present on Thursday, April 24, 2025, at 12:45 in room RB437 about the topic “Disparities in Obstetric Care and Outcomes”.

Registration is not required and anyone who would like to attend is warmly invited.

It is also possible to participate online via MS Teams at this link. In case of any connection issues, please contact lubomir.cingl@vse.cz.

ABSTRACT: Physicians frequently make differing treatment decisions for patients presenting with comparable medical conditions, and such variation can have substantial implications for patient outcomes. This study examines disparities in obstetric care between Roma and non-Roma women during childbirth. Our findings indicate that Roma mothers are systematically more likely to be discharged earlier following delivery compared to observationally similar non-Roma counterparts. Additionally, they face elevated rates of obstetric trauma, including severe perineal lacerations and excessive hemorrhaging. Newborns of Roma mothers also exhibit a higher likelihood of early discharge and subsequent rehospitalization. These disparities persist after adjusting for medical risk factors, sociodemographic variables, and hospital-level characteristics, suggesting that differential treatment may be driven, at least in part, by ethnic discrimination or implicit bias within the healthcare system.

BIO: Andreea Mitrut is a Professor of Economics at the University of Gothenburg. Her research lies at the intersection of labor, public, and political economics, with a focus on child development, fertility, education, corruption, and social exclusion. For more info about her work please see here.