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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Terry J. Rosenberg, PhD¹, Samantha Garbers, MPA², and Mary Ann Chiasson, DrPH². (1) Senior Deputy Director for Evaluation, Medical and Health Research Association of New York City, Inc., 220 Church, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10013, 646-619-6400, trosenberg@mhra.org, (2) Research and Evaluation, Medical and Health Research Association of New York City, Inc., 40 Worth Street, Suite 720, New York, NY 10013

Prior studies of the “healthy immigrant” have most often compared US-born whites and US-born Latinas to foreign-born Latinas. This study investigates whether birthplace and lifestyle affect birthweight for US-born whites, US-born Blacks, Caribbean-born blacks, and African-born Blacks. The analysis was based on a 1996-2000 NYC births file with 263,989 singleton births. Birthweight was the outcome variable; the lifestyle indicators were prepregnancy weight, prenatal weight gain, and prenatal substance use. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the predictors of low birthweight and very low birthweight in the four groups. There were statistically significant differences among the groups for the key variables. Of the US-born Black mothers, 78.3% were unmarried, compared to 57.8% of the Caribbean-born mothers and 46.9% of the African-born mothers. While 10.6% of US-born Blacks smoked during pregnancy, only 1.1% of the Caribbean-born and 0.3% of the African-born did. And, while 11.2% of US-born Blacks had a LBW baby, 8.6% and 6.9% of the Caribbean-born and African-born respectively had a LBW baby. Adjusting for lifestyle indicators and for a set of confounders (mother's age, marital status, education, insurance, parity, and trimester of first prenatal visit), mother's birthplace/race was still a significant predictor of birthweight. Using US-born whites as the reference group, the AORs for a LBW baby were 2.4 for US-born, 1.9 for Caribbean-born, and 1.6 for African-born Black women. We found strong evidence of the healthy immigrant hypothesis: foreign-born Blacks had higher socioeconomic status, healthier lifestyle indicators, and better birth outcomes than US-born Blacks.

Learning Objectives: From this presentation participants will

(
• Learn about the differences in birthweight and lifestyles of mother's birthplace/racial group; (
• Learn about the effects of mother's birthplace/race on birthweight; and, (
• Hear suggested reasons for the differentials in birthweight and lifestyles of US- and foreign-born Black mothers.

Keywords: Birth Outcomes, Immigrant Women

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation