Health Inequities in Manitoba: Is the Socioeconomic Gap

Health Inequities in Manitoba: Is the Socioeconomic Gap in Health Widening or Narrowing Over Time?
• The disparity rate differences (i.e., the absolute difference of the teenage pregnancy rate between
the lowest and highest neighbourhood income groups) appear to be increasing over time. Whereas
the absolute differences are consistently statistically significantly higher in urban, indicating a larger
rate difference between lowest and highest neighbourhood income groups in urban Manitoba, this
gap appears to be narrowing in the most recent time periods.
What is this telling us?
• Although teenage pregnancy rates are declining over time in nearly all rural and urban
neighbourhood income groups, the socioeconomic gap in teenage pregnancies is widening over
time for both rural and urban Manitobans.
• By all measures, the socioeconomic gap is larger in urban than in rural Manitoba.
• The teenage pregnancy rate is lower in the last time period than in the first time period for all rural
and urban neighbourhood income groups, except for the lowest neighbourhood income group in
urban Manitoba, where it is higher in the last time period than in the first time period.
• The largest socioeconomic gap in teenage pregnancies is seen in the most recent time period (T8)
for both rural and urban Manitoba, where nearly 45% of teenage pregnancies are experienced by the
lowest neighbourhood income groups R1 and U1 which represent around one–fifth of the females
aged 15–19 (22.5% of the teens aged 15–19 in rural groups, and 17.4% of the teens aged 15–19 in
urban groups).
• Relative differences in disparity rates for rural and urban Manitoba appear to be diverging, with
urban showing an upward trend.
• Absolute differences in disparity rates for rural and urban Manitoba appear to be converging, with
urban showing a downward trend and rural showing an upward trend over time.
Where to from here?
• Further investigation is warranted to understand why the lowest neighbourhood income group in
urban Manitoba is the only neighbourhood income group in rural or urban Manitoba where the
teenage pregnancy rate has increased over time.
• Further investigation is warranted to understand why absolute differences in disparity rate for rural
Manitoba is increasing as urban Manitoba is decreasing.
Manitoba Centre for Health Policy 49