This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow P3Rs: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when P3Rs are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow E-mail this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Fang, J.
Right arrow Articles by Alderman, M. H.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Fang, J.
Right arrow Articles by Alderman, M. H.
Related Collections
Right arrow Premature & Newborn

PEDIATRICS Vol. 103 No. 1 January 1999, p. e5

ELECTRONIC ARTICLE:
Low Birth Weight: Race and Maternal Nativity--- Impact of Community Income

Received Mar 10, 1998; accepted Aug 6, 1998.

Jing Fang, Shantha Madhavan, and Michael H. Alderman

From the Department of Epidemiology and Social Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York.

Background.    The purpose of this article is to determine the effect of community income as a co-factor in the association of low birth weight, race, and maternal nativity in New York City.

Methods.    New York City birth records, 1988 through 1994, provided data on maternal and infant characteristics. There were 274 121 white and 279 826 black mothers included in this study. Black mothers were classified as US-born (South and Northeast) and foreign-born (the Caribbean, South America, and Africa). Based on the 1990 US census income data, census tracts of the city were aggregated by tertile of per capita income as low-, middle-, and high-income communities. Incidence of low birth weight was estimated by race, maternal nativity in the city as a whole, and each income community.

Results.    Overall, black women had a substantially higher risk of low birth weight infants (<2500 g) than did whites (13.1% vs 4.8%). Foreign-born black mothers had a birth weight advantage over US-born black mothers (10.0% vs 16.7%). After controlling for socioeconomic and medical characteristics, the risks of low birth weight for blacks compared with whites were 0.95 (95% confidence interval: 0.87-1.03) and 0.86 (0.69-1.02) for Caribbean- and African-born black mothers, respectively. Moreover, in low-income communities, compared with white mothers, the risks for Caribbean- and African-born black mothers were 0.88 (0.79-0.97) and 0.77 (0.61-0.96), respectively. By contrast, US and South American-born black mothers had a consistently higher risk of low birth weight infants, regardless of community income level.

Conclusion.    Low birth weight was significantly less frequent among whites than among blacks. However, this overall finding masked substantial variation among blacks, determined by maternal nativity and the income level of the community in which they lived. In fact, Caribbean- and African-born black mothers had birth outcomes generally similar to and, in poor communities, even more favorable than those for whites.  Key words:  low birth weight, nativity, blacks, New York City, community income.




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Int J EpidemiolHome page
M. S Kramer, C. V Ananth, R. W Platt, and K. Joseph
US Black vs White disparities in foetal growth: physiological or pathological?
Int. J. Epidemiol., October 1, 2006; 35(5): 1187 - 1195.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]