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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Martha S. Wingate, DrPH, Health Care Organization and Policy, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health, RPHB 330, 1530 3rd Avenue South, Birmingham, AL 35294-0022, (205) 934-6783, mslay@uab.edu, Shailender Swaminathan, PhD, Maternal and Child Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health, RPHB 320, 1530 3rd Avenue South, Birmingham, AL 35294-0022, and Greg R. Alexander, MPH, ScD, Department of Pediatrics, University of South Florida College of Medicine, 17 Davis Blvd #200, MDC 15, Tampa, FL 33606.

Some studies have found that patterns of foreign-born Black women are more closely related to those of U.S.-born White women than to U.S.-born Black women. Attention has been given to the “healthy migrant effect” as an explanation of these positive outcomes; however, few studies have examined this theory in an internally migrant population. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between maternal mobility history and birth outcomes among infants born to Black mothers. This study used 1995-2000 NCHS live birth/infant death cohort files of singleton infants delivered in the U.S. to non-Hispanic Black women (n=3,405,594). Maternal mobility history (MMH), which refers to the relationship between the maternal place of birth and the state of residence at delivery, was categorized into the four following groups: (a) foreign-born—place of birth outside the U.S. and delivery in the U.S.; (b) outside-region—place of birth in one U.S region and delivery in another U.S. region; (c) within-region—place of birth in one U.S region and delivery in a different state in the same U.S. region; and (d) within-state—place of birth and delivery in the same U.S. state. There is evidence to support the healthy migrant effect in an internally migrant Black population. This study found that infants born to mothers with outside- and within-region MMH had a lower risk of morbidities (low birth weight, etc.) compared to those infants born to mothers who did not move.

Learning Objectives:

• 1. describe the healthy migrant effect as it applies to mobility within the US.
• 2. define the possible relationship between mobility and birth outcomes
• 3. compare and contrast the unique socio-demographic and medical characteristics of foreign-born and internal migrant Black mothers

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered