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Published on: January 12, 2018
Parental Race/Ethnicity and Adverse Birth Outcomes in New York City: 2000-2010
Luisa N Borrell1, Elena Rodriguez-Alvarez1, David A Savitz1
1Luisa N. Borrell is with the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, New York, NY. Elena Rodriguez-Alvarez is with the Department of Nursing I, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and the Social Determinants of Health and Demographic Change Group, Leioa, Spain. David A. Savitz is with the Departments of Epidemiology and of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Brown University, Providence, RI. Maria C. Baquero is with the Department of Health Sciences, Lehman College, City of University of New York, Bronx, NY.
Objectives:
To examine the association of maternal race/ethnicity only and parental race/ethnicity jointly with adverse birth outcomes (low birth weight, small for gestational age, preterm birth, and infant mortality) among New York City women.
Methods:
We used Bureau of Vital Statistics, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene birth- and death-linked data from 2000 to 2010 (n = 984 807) to quantify the association of maternal race/ethnicity and parental race/ethnicity concordance or discordance with each outcome.
Results:
By maternal race/ethnicity, infants of non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, and Asian women had risks of adverse birth outcomes between 10% and 210% greater than infants of non-Hispanic White women. Infants of non-Hispanic Black, Asian, and Hispanic couples exhibited higher risk of adverse birth outcomes than infants of non-Hispanic White couples. Moreover, parental racial/ethnic discordance was associated with an increased risk of adverse birth outcomes, with highest risks for pairings of Asian men with non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, and Hispanic women, and of Asian women with non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic men.
Conclusions:
Parental race/ethnicity discordance may add stress to women during pregnancy, affecting birth outcomes. Thus, parental race/ethnicity should be considered when examining such outcomes.
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