title: Invited Commentary: Troubling Trends in Birth Weight.
abstract: Birth weight is a strong predictor of the health of newborns. Consequently, the report by Catov et al. in this issue of the Journal (Am J Epidemiol. 2016;183(1):15-23), in which they showed downward trends in birth weights in a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, hospital from 1997 to 2011, raises concerns. The widening gap reported between birth weights of babies born to white and African-American women could correspond to a widening gap in actual health outcomes. However, if the relation between birth weight and health outcomes is not causal, these trends may be epiphenomena of limited concern.
authors.forename: Clarice R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Weinberg
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001724:Birth Weight; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: birth weight; racial disparities; surrogate markers; trends