Does the epidemiologic paradox hold in the presence of risk factors for low birth weight infants among Mexican-born women in Colorado?
OBJECTIVE
To test whether foreign-born status confers a protective effect against low birth weight (LBW) outcomes among Mexican-origin women in Colorado.


METHODS
Retrospective cohort study utilizing Colorado birth records from 1989-2004 for multivariate logistic regression analysis. The study population was 66,422 U.S.-born women of Mexican origin (USB) and 85,000 Mexican-born (MB) women with singleton births.


RESULTS
Mexican-born women had 24.9% lower odds of LBW (OR 0.751 95% CI 0.782) than USB women. Mexican-born women had a higher prevalence of risk factors for LBW than their USB counterparts (anemia, cardiac disease, hypertension, inadequate prenatal care, less than high school education). After adjusting for these risk factors, MB women had 22.5% lower odds of having LBW infants than USB women (OR 0.775, 95% CI 0.73-0.81).


CONCLUSIONS
This study supports the epidemiologic paradox of LBW; despite higher prevalence of risk factors, foreign-born status confers an overall protective effect against low birth weight outcomes.
Colorado School of Public Health, Preventive Medicine Residency Program, USA. camilaxr@hotmail.com
Camila X
CX
Romero
Jodi K
JK
Duke
Dana
D
Dabelea
Tomas E
TE
Romero
Lorraine G
LG
Ogden
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015984:Causality; D003120:Colorado / Q000453:epidemiology; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight / Q000502:physiology*; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D016015:Logistic Models; D017058:Mexican Americans; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D012042:Registries; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D055815:Young Adult