Published online May 1, 2006
PEDIATRICS Vol. 117 No. 5 May 2006, pp. 1618-1625 (doi:10.1542/peds.2005-1203)
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters 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 Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Web of Science (1)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Beal, A. C.
Right arrow Articles by Ezhuthachan, S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Beal, A. C.
Right arrow Articles by Ezhuthachan, S.
Related Collections
Right arrow Premature & Newborn
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Facebook   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

The Changing Face of Race: Risk Factors for Neonatal Hyperbilirubinemia

Anne C. Beal, MD, MPHa,b, Shu-Chiung Chou, PhDb, R. Heather Palmer, MB, BCh, SM, FAAPb, Marcia A. Testa, MPH, PhDc, Christine Newman, MS, RNC, CNNPd and Sudhakar Ezhuthachan, MD, DCH, FAAPd

a The Commonwealth Fund
b Center for Quality of Care Research and Education
c Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
d Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, Michigan

OBJECTIVES. Race is a predictor of health outcomes and risk for some clinical conditions, for example, mother's race predicts risk for hyperbilirubinemia in newborns, with blacks at lowest risk. Little is known about the correlation of race as recorded in medical records with self-reported race. Also, use of maternal race to predict newborn risk for hyperbilirubinemia has not been tested for multiracial mothers and newborns. We sought to examine how maternal race documented in medical records correlates with self-reported race and to examine the correlation between mothers' and newborns' race in the context of risk for neonatal hyperbilirubinemia, focusing on multiracial mothers and newborns.

DESIGN. A cohort study with 3021 newborns at ≥35 weeks gestation discharged from normal nursery between January 2001 and October 2002 with a telephone survey of their mothers within 6 months of birth.

SETTING. The study was conducted in the Neonatology Department of Henry Ford Hospital.

PATIENTS. There were 1773 mothers (58%) with incorrect telephone numbers. Of 1248 mothers contacted, 866 (69%) completed the interview.

OUTCOME MEASURES. We measured mother's race in hospital database and mother's reported race for herself, her newborn, and the father, allowing ≤5 responses for each.

RESULTS. Of mothers documented in the medical record as white, 64% self-reported as white. Among mothers recorded as black, 70% self-reported as black. Mothers identified 93 newborns as ≥2 races with primary race matching both parents for 41%, father for 25%, mother for 23%, and neither parent for 11%. Of 70 newborns whose parents were not the same race, mothers identified 45 (64%) as ≥2 races.

CONCLUSIONS. There is incomplete overlap between racial identification in medical records versus self-report. Given 1 choice, mothers of multiracial infants overselect black in their newborns' ancestry. Because black race is the lowest risk category for neonatal hyperbilirubinemia, this may lead to underestimating their risk.

Key Words: neonatal hyperbilirubinemia • race • racial identification • multiracial • risk factors

Abbreviations: TSB—total serum bilirubin • HFHS—Henry Ford Health System • NRC—National Research Corporation

Accepted Oct 5, 2005.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Facebook Facebook   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?