Printed In USA Enigma of Maternal Race and Infant Birth Weight: A Population-based Study of US-born Black and Caribbean-born Black Women

The authors used 1985-1990 Illinois ' vital records to determine the low birth weight components of infants delivered to US-born Black women, Caribbean-born Black women, and US-born White women. The moderately low birth weight rate (1,500-2,499 g) was 10 % for infants with US-born Black mothers (n = 67,357) and 6 % for infants with Caribbean-born mothers (n = 2,265) compared with 4 % for infants with US-born White mothers (n = 34,124); the relative risk equaled 2.7 (95 % confidence interval (Cl): 2.5, 2.8) and 1.7 (95 % Cl: 1.4, 2.0), respectively. The very low birth weight rate (<1,500 g) was 2.6 % for infants delivered to US-born Black women and 2.4 % for infants to Caribbean-born women compared with 0.7 % for infants to US-born White women; the relative risk equaled 3.6 (95 % Cl: 3.1, 4.1) and 3.3 (95 % Cl: 2.5, 4.4), respectively. Among the lowest risk mothers, the relative risk of moderately low birth weight for infants with US-born Black mothers and Caribbean-born mothers (compared with US-born White mothers) was 2.7 (95 % Cl: 2.1, 3.4) and 1.2 (95 % Cl: 0.4, 3.1), respectively; the relative risk of very low birth weight for infants with US-born Black mothers and Caribbean-born mothers was 6.7 (95 % Cl: 3.8,12) and 4.2 (95 % Cl: 1.0,18), respectively. The authors conclude that Caribbean-born women and US-born Black women have disparate moderate rates but equivalent very low birth weight rates. Am J Epidemiol 2000;151:1080-5. Blacks; infant, low birth weigh