OBJECTIVES This study assessed the contribution of age and other risk factors to racial disparities in rates of moderately low birthweight (MLBW; 1500-2499 g) and very low birthweight (VLBW; <1500 g). METHODS Logistic regression models were developed to determine the effects on MLBW and VLBW of maternal age, race, and poverty, adjusting for birth order, smoking, substance abuse, marital statu...

To investigate the relation between Asian ethnicity/national origin and low birth weight (< 2,500 g), the authors analyzed singleton live births among 50,044 Asian and 221,866 white women who delivered in California during 1992. Ethnic and subgroup differences in prenatal characteristics and birth weight outcomes were found between Asian and white women and between Asian subgroups. In unadjuste...

The relationship between interpregnancy interval and adverse birth outcomes (i.e., low birth weight, preterm birth, and small size for gestational age) was examined in three recent studies conducted in Utah and Michigan of the United States. These studies were conducted among different populations, used different study designs (i.e., cross-sectional and retrospective cohort designs), and addres...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of biological and social background on height of adolescent girls at age 19 y in the city of Pelotas, Southern Brazil. In 2001, a sample of the urban census tracts was visited and adolescent girls who were part of the Pelotas 1982 Birth Cohort Study were located. Standardized questionnaires were administered to the adolescents and their...

There were sharp increases in nonmarital childbearing from 2002 to 2007, following the steady increases beginning in the 1980s. The upward trends have mainly reversed since 2007-2008. In addition, the nature of nonmarital childbearing may be changing as cohabiting unions have increased over the last few decades in the United States along with pregnancies within those unions. Births to unmarried...

Birth weight and gestational age are important measures of a newborn's intrinsic health, serving both as outcome measures and explanatory variables in health studies. The measures are highly correlated but occasionally inconsistent. We anticipate that health researchers and other scientists would be helped by summary indexes of birth weight and gestational age that give more precise indications...

The authors examined secular trends in birth weight for a geographically defined population over 40 years, controlling for migration effects. The study was an analysis first of all Illinois births between 1950 and 1990 and second of a subset of births for which two succeeding generations were born in the state. For the latter analysis, the authors created a transgenerational birth file by linki...

BACKGROUND Information tracking changes of birthweight is scarce in China. To examine trends of low birthweight (birthweight < 2500 g) and macrosomia (birthweight ≥ 4000 g) and potential risk factors in Beijing, hospital records from two major obstetrics and gynecology hospitals in urban districts in Beijing were analyzed. METHODS Hospital records from 1996 to 2010 were retrieved. Information...

These high risk conditions are significant predictors of major pediatric developmental problems and place a disproportionate burden of disability on educational and societal resources. The impact of this research and clinical knowledge gained from this study are sizeable, both theoretically and clinically. That is, the challenges faced by families of children with VLBW and BPD illness are not u...

A key policy question is whether the benefits of additional medical expenditures exceed their costs. We propose a new approach for estimating marginal returns to medical spending based on variation in medical inputs generated by diagnostic thresholds. Specifically, we combine regression discontinuity estimates that compare health outcomes and medical treatment provision for newborns on either s...