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Published on: June 13, 2021
Preconception stress, birth weight, and birth weight disparities among US women
Kelly L Strutz1, Vijaya K Hogan, Anna Maria Siega-Riz
1At the time of the study, Kelly L. Strutz was with the Department of Maternal and Child Health, Gillings School of Global Public Health, and the Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Vijaya K. Hogan, Carolyn Tucker Halpern, and Jon M. Hussey are with the Department of Maternal and Child Health, Anna Maria Siega-Riz is with the Department of Epidemiology and Department of Nutrition, and Chirayath M. Suchindran is with the Department of Biostatistics, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Anna Maria Siega-Riz, Chirayath M. Suchindran, Carolyn Tucker Halpern, and Jon M. Hussey are also with the Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Objectives:
We examined the impact of preconception acute and chronic stressors on offspring birth weight and racial/ethnic birth weight disparities.
Methods:
We included birth weights for singleton live first (n = 3512) and second (n = 1901) births to White, Mexican-origin Latina, other-origin Latina, and Black women reported at wave IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (2007-2008; ages 24-32 years). We generated factor scores for preconception acute and chronic stressors from wave I (1994-1995; ages 11-19 years) or wave III (2001-2002; ages 18-26 years) for the same cohort of women.
Results:
Linear regression models indicated that chronic stressors, but not acute stressors, were inversely associated with birth weight for both first and second births (b = -192; 95% confidence interval = -270, -113; and b = -180; 95% confidence interval = -315, -45, respectively), and partially explained the disparities in birth weight between the minority racial/ethnic groups and Whites.
Conclusions:
Preconception chronic stressors contribute to restricted birth weight and to racial/ethnic birth weight disparities.
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