Am J Epidemiol 2003; 157:1-8.
Copyright © 2003 by Johns
Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS |
Neighborhood Support and the Birth Weight of Urban Infants
1 Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, Chicago, IL.
2 Department of Maternal and Child Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA.
3 Department of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
4 Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Boston, MA.
5 School of Education, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
6 Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
Differences in maternal characteristics only partially explain the lower birth weights of infants of African-American women. It is hypothesized that economic and social features of urban neighborhoods may further account for these differences. The authors conducted a household survey of 8,782 adults residing in 343 Chicago, Illinois, neighborhoods to assess mean levels of perceived social support and used US Census data to estimate neighborhood economic disadvantage. Data on birth weight and maternal risk factors were gathered from 95,711 birth certificates (1994–1996). Before statistical adjustment of the data, infants born to African-American mothers were found to be, on average, 297 g lighter than those born to White mothers. After adjustment for individual-level risk factors, this difference was reduced to 154 g. For African-American mothers only, mean birth weight decreased significantly as the neighborhood level of economic disadvantage increased. For White mothers only, a significant positive association was found between perceived levels of neighborhood social support and infant birth weight. Adding these neighborhood-level predictors to the model reduced the adjusted White versus African-American difference in birth weight to 124 g. Results support the hypothesis that neighborhood-level factors are significantly associated with infant birth weight.
birth weight; poverty; risk factors; social environment; socioeconomic factors
Abbreviations: Abbreviation: PHDCN, Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods.
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