title: The differential effect of traditional risk factors on infant birthweight among blacks and whites in Chicago.
abstract: We analyzed 103,072 White and Black births in Chicago from the 1982 and 1983 Illinois vital records, using 1980 median family income of mother's census tract as an ecologic variable. Thirty-one percent of Blacks and 4 percent of Whites resided in census tracts with median family incomes less than or equal to $10,000/year. Only 2 percent of Black mothers, compared to 16 percent of White mothers, lived in areas where the median family income was greater than $25,000/year. Among Blacks with incomes less than or equal to $10,000/year, maternal age, education, and marital status had minimal predictive power on the incidence of low birthweight (LBW) infants. Among high-risk mothers in the poorest areas the proportion of LBW infants in Blacks and Whites was less divergent than in higher income areas. Independent of residential area, low-risk Whites had half the occurrence of LBW infants as Blacks. We conclude that the extremes of residential environments show dramatic racial disparity in prevalence, yet the few low-risk Blacks still do less well than low-risk Whites. Traditional risk factors do not completely explain racial differences in neonatal outcome.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Collins
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: David
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D002641:Chicago; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008423:Maternal Age; D011203:Poverty; D012307:Risk Factors; D044465:White People