Descriptive Data Analysis of Inequality of Economic Opportunity using the Queensland Family Cohort Pilot Study

• Published date: 01 September 2021
• Author: Brenda Gannon,Danusha Jayawardana,Vicki Clifton
• Date: 01 September 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8462.12438

The Australian Economic Review, vol. 54, no. 3, pp. 398–405 DOI: 10.1111/1467-8462.12438

Data Survey

Descriptive Data Analysis of Inequality of Economic Opportunity

using the Queensland Family Cohort Pilot Study

Brenda Gannon, Danusha Jayawardana and Vicki Clifton*

Abstract

The Queensland Family Cohort Pilot Study

follows 450 women over the course of their

pregnancy and after giving birth, collecting a

wealth of information on socioeconomic char-

acteristics, health, healthcare use and biological

samples. The focus of this paper is to demon-

strate how these data may be used to measure

inequality of opportunity, between advantaged

and disadvantaged populations, for mothers,

partners and babies, in terms of their mental

health and use of scarce health care resources.

This paper provides the foundation for future

analyses when a wider Queensland study is

proposed to collect data from 12,500 families.

1. Introduction

The Queensland Family Cohort Pilot study is

a population‐based cohort study focusing on

the impact of parental health (physical,

mental, family health) on pregnancy outcomes

and child health, from conception and across

the first 6 weeks of life. This cohort collects

data from mothers, fathers and infants.

Women (

n

450=) and their partners were

recruited from the general population through

the Mater Mothers Hospital, Brisbane. This

study has a large interdisciplinary team

analysing biological samples from mothers

and babies, and a specific theme devoted to

health economics and epidemiology, who are

largely interested in the quantitative data on

socio‐economic circumstances and subsequent

health care use. Thus, this rich data set is ideal

for quantitative researchers with an applied

economic lens. The pilot study is the fore-

runner to the QFC, a prospective, observa-

tional, longitudinal study that will recruit

12,500 pregnant families across the state of

Queensland, and intends to follow up families

and children for three decades (Borg et al.,

2021). In this paper, we specifically discuss

the data available that enable us to analyse the

Inequality of Economic Opportunity (IoEP),

that is between advantaged and disadvantaged

populations, in terms of mental health and use

of scarce health care resources.

It is well known in the health economics

literature that early life opportunities, even

before a child is born, can affect the child's

health (Currie and Almond, 2011) and, hence,

* Gannon: Centre for the Business and Economics of Health

and School of Economics, University of Queensland, St

Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia; Jayawardana: Centre for the

Business and Economics of Health, University of

Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia; Clifton: Mater

Research Institute, University of Queensland, Aubigny Place

Level 3, Raymond Terrace, Mater Hill, South Brisbane, QLD

4101, Australia. Corresponding author: Gannon, email

<brenda.gannon@uq.edu.au>

© 2021 The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research,

Faculty of Business and Economics

Published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd