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Background: Although socioeconomic disparities adversely affect health, studies referring to the "healthy immigrant effect" imply more favorable health outcomes in immigrants than natives. We aimed to investigate the impact of immigration on several perinatal parameters.Methods: Birth records (01/01/2010 - 31/12/2014) from a public maternity hospital in Athens, Greece were reviewed for maternal (ethnicity, age, delivery mode) and neonatal (gender, birthweight, gestational age) variables. Immigrants were classified by country of origin, according to Human Development Index. Comparison of results between Greeks and immigrants were made. Stratification by maternal age (< and ≥35 years) was conducted to test for confounding and interaction.Results: Almost one-third of 7506 deliveries applied to immigrants; 36.3% of Greeks and 19.2% of immigrants [risk ratio (RR) = 0.53, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.52-0.54] delivered at ≥35 years; 10.5% of Greek and 7.0% of immigrant neonates weighted <2500 g (RR = 0.67, 95% CI = 0.61-0.74); 10.9% of Greeks and 8.1% of immigrants were born <37 wks (RR = 0.74, 95% CI = 0.67-0.82); 55.7% of Greeks and 48.2% of immigrants delivered by caesarean section (RR = 0.87, 95% CI = 0.85-0.88).Conclusion: We found that immigrant women deliver at a younger age, vaginally, more mature, and heavier neonates. Furthermore, we confirmed that the protective effect of immigrant status could not be explained by maternal age only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Socioeconomic factors associated with twins/multiples have been sparsely studied., Methods: Data, regarding twin out of total births from 1996 to 2015, were extracted from databases of the Hellenic Statistical Authority and analyzed., Results: Twinning rate in Greece has increased from 1996 and onwards, in parallel with advanced maternal age and decline in total births. Higher twin rates are associated with higher maternal education, better paid parental occupations, and thus wealthier families, married maternal status, while immigrants present a lower twinning rate than Greeks. Lastly, the years of the economic crisis, starting in the year 2008 and still continuing, are characterized by a higher percentage of twins., Conclusions: Our findings should be mainly attributed to the postponement of fertility, as well as the treatment of infertility with transfer of multiple embryos, when assisted reproductive technologies are applied.