IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v401y2026ics0277953626004284.html

Birth order and infant health: Evidence from maternal immunisation in New Zealand

Author

Listed:
  • Schober, Thomas

Abstract

Immunisation during pregnancy is a vital strategy to protect infants from infectious diseases in their first months of life, yet little is known about how birth order relates to maternal vaccination uptake and infants’ risk of severe illness. Drawing on administrative data from New Zealand covering more than 200,000 births between 2015 and 2023, I analyse the relationship between birth order and maternal vaccination against pertussis and influenza. I also examine subsequent infant hospitalisations for these diseases. The findings show that later-born children experience higher hospitalisation rates, likely because of increased exposure to infectious diseases through older siblings. At the same time, maternal vaccination rates decline with each pregnancy, leaving those who would benefit most from maternal immunisation the least likely to receive it. These findings suggest that improving vaccination uptake during later pregnancies could yield important health gains for infants at highest risk.

Suggested Citation

  • Schober, Thomas, 2026. "Birth order and infant health: Evidence from maternal immunisation in New Zealand," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 401(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:401:y:2026:i:c:s0277953626004284
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2026.119352
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953626004284
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2026.119352?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:401:y:2026:i:c:s0277953626004284. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.