Low-income African-American mothers' perception of exposure to racial discrimination and infant birth weight

James W. Collins*, Richard J. David, Rebecca Symons, Adren Handler, Stephen N. Wall, Lisa Dwyer

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

154 Scopus citations

Abstract

We performed a hospital-based case-control study of African-American mothers to explore the relation between a mother's perception of exposure to racial discrimination during pregnancy and very low birth weight. We administered a structured questionnaire to low-income mothers of very low birth weight (<1500 gm; N = 25) and non-low birth weight (>2500 gm; N = 60) infants. The unadjusted and adjusted odds ratio of very low birth weight for maternal exposure to racial discrimination were 1.9 (0.5-6.6) and 3.2 (0.9- 11.3), respectively. We conclude that maternal perception of exposure to racial discrimination during pregnancy may be associated with very low birth weight in their infants.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)337-339
Number of pages3
JournalEpidemiology
Volume11
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2000

Keywords

  • Birth weight
  • Case-control study
  • Low- income
  • Race
  • Racial discrimination
  • Very low birth weight

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Epidemiology

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