title: Institutional racism, neighborhood factors, stress, and preterm birth.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Racial/ethnic disparities in the risk of preterm birth may be explained by various factors, and previous studies are limited in examining the role of institutional racism. This study focused on the following questions: what is the association between preterm birth and institutional racism as measured by residential racial segregation (geographic separation by race) and redlining (black-white disparity in mortgage loan denial); and what is the association between preterm birth and reported stress, discrimination, and neighborhood quality.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used data from a clinic-based sample of pregnant women (n = 3462) participating in a stress and pregnancy study conducted from 1999 to 2004 in Philadelphia, PA (USA). We linked data from the 2000 US Census and Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data from 1999 to 2004 and developed measures of residential redlining and segregation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the entire population, there was an increased risk for preterm birth among women who were older, unmarried, tobacco users, higher number of previous births, high levels of experiences of everyday discrimination, owned their homes, lived in nonredlined areas, and areas with high levels of segregation measured by the isolation index. Among black women, living in a redlined area (where blacks were more likely to be denied mortgage loans compared to whites) was moderately associated with a decreased risk of preterm birth (aRR = 0.8, 95% CI: 0.6, 0.99).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Residential redlining as a form institutional racism and neighborhood characteristic may be important for understanding racial/ethnic disparities in pregnancy and preterm birth.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Epidemiology , University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh , PA 15261 , USA.
authors.forename: Dara D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Mendez
authors.forename: Vijaya K
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Hogan
authors.forename: Jennifer F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Culhane
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D019352:Censuses; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D015143:Philadelphia / Q000453:epidemiology; D011247:Pregnancy; D047928:Premature Birth / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D063505:Racism; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D057566:Self Report; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications / Q000208:ethnology*; D044465:White People
keywords: health disparities; pregnancy; preterm birth; racism; redlining; segregation