Paternal race/ethnicity and birth outcomes.
OBJECTIVE
I sought to identify whether there were associations between paternal race/ethnicity and birth outcomes among infants with parents of same- and mixed-races/ethnicities.


METHODS
Using the National Center for Health Statistics 2001 linked birth and infant death file, I compared birth outcomes of infants of White mothers and fathers of different races/ethnicities by matching and weighting racial/ethnic groups following a propensity scoring approach so other characteristics were distributed identically. I applied the same analysis to infants of Black parents and infants with a Black mother and White father.


RESULTS
Variation in risk factors and outcomes was found in infants of White mothers by paternal race/ethnicity. After propensity score weighting, the disparities in outcomes by paternal or parental race/ethnicity could be largely attributed to nonracial parental characteristics. Infants whose paternal race/ethnicity was unreported on their birth certificates had the worst outcomes.


CONCLUSIONS
The use of maternal race/ethnicity to refer to infant race/ethnicity in research is problematic. The effects of maternal race/ethnicity on birth outcomes are estimated to be much larger than that of paternal race/ethnicity after I controlled for all covariates. Not listing a father on the birth certificate had a strong association with outcomes, which might be a source of bias in existing data and a marker for identifying infants at risk.
Ma
Sai
S
Pardee Rand Graduate School, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA. sma@jhsph.edu
D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000193:education / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001034:Apgar Score; D001719:Birth Certificates; D001724:Birth Weight; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003644:Death Certificates; D004522:Educational Status; D005220:Fathers / Q000193:education / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D007226:Infant Mortality / Q000208:ethnology; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000208:ethnology; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome / Q000208:ethnology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D044465:White People / Q000193:education / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data