A BRIEF ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION Relation of Maternal Race to the Risk of Preterm, Non-Low Birth Weight Infants: a Population Study

contnbution of maternal race to the risk of preterm (<260 days), non-low birth weight (>2,500 g) infants. This older cohort was chosen to avoid the confounding effect of cocaine associated with its increased local availability after 1985. In Chicago, the unadjusted preterm, non-low birth weight rate was 14 % for African Americans (n = 43,059) compared with 9 % for Mexican Americans (n = 10,397) and 7 % for whites (n = 26,152) (odds ratio = 1.7, 95 % confidence interval 1.6-1.8; odds ratio = 2.4, 95 % confidence interval 2.3-2.5, respectively). In logistic models that included maternal sociodemographic and prenatal care variables, the adjusted odds ratio of preterm, non-low birth weight for African Americans compared with Mexican Americans and whites was 1.6 (95 % confidence interval 1.4-1.8) and 1.5 (95 % confidence interval 1.2-1.7), respectively. The authors conclude that some factor closely linked to the African-American race, not underserved minority status per se, is a fundamental cause of preterm, non-low birth weight. Am J Epidemiol 1996;143:333-7. blacks; infant, low birth weight; infant, premature It has long been recognized that African-American infants have a twofold greater neonatal mortality rate than do white infants (1). This is primarily related to population differences in the proportion of preter