Work

Very Low Birthweight in African American Infants: The Role of Maternal Exposure to Interpersonal Racial Discrimination

Year: 2004

Type: article

Abstract: OBJECTIVES: We determined whether African American women's lifetime exposure to interpersonal racial discrimination is associated with pregnancy outcomes. METHODS: We performed a case-control study among 104 African American women who delivered very low birthweight (<1500 g) preterm (<37 weeks) infants and 208 African American women who delivered non-low-birthweight (>2500 g) term infants in Chicago, Ill. RESULTS: The unadjusted and adjusted odds ratio of very low birthweight infants for maternal lifetime exposure to interpersonal racism in 3 or more domains equaled 3.2 (95% confidence intervals=1.5, 6.6) and 2.6 (1.2, 5.3), respectively. This association tended to persist across maternal sociodemographic, biomedical, and behavioral characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: The lifelong accumulated experiences of racial discrimination by African American women constitute an independent risk factor for preterm delivery.

Source: American Journal of Public Health

DOI: 10.2105/ajph.94.12.2132

Authors: James W. Collins, Richard J. David, Arden Handler, Stephen Wall, Steven Andes

Institutions: Northwestern University, Lurie Children's Hospital, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Illinois Chicago, University of Chicago

Language: English

Topic: Racial and Ethnic Identity Research

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Good health and well-being, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: green

Funder: Chicago Community Trust