 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
|
| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Kim G. Harley, MPH, School of Public Health, Dept. of Epidemiology, University of California, Berkeley, 2150 Shattuck Ave., Suite 600, Berkeley, CA 94720-7380, 510 643-4717, kharley@uclink4.berkeley.edu and Brenda Eskenazi, PhD, Center for Children's Environmental Health Research, University of California, Berkeley, 2150 Shattuck Ave, Suite 600, Berkeley, CA 94720.
US-born Mexican-American women are at much higher risk of delivering a low birth weight baby than Mexican immigrant women. Overall, infants of US-born Mexican-Americans also have a lower mean birth weight than infants of Mexico-born immigrants. This effect can only be partially explained by the higher rates of smoking, alcohol and drug use during pregnancy in US-born women of Mexican descent. Thus, it has been suggested that poorer diet and deterioration of social networks may also play a role in the decrease in birth weight among US-born women, although few studies have examined these hypotheses. We examined dietary intake and patterns of social support in a population of 463 US-born and Mexico-born pregnant women of Mexican descent living in the Salinas Valley, California and receiving prenatal care at six participating clinics. Dietary intake was assessed using a food frequency questionnaire that was administered at the end of the second trimester of pregnancy. Information on social support as well as detailed demographic, behavioral and health information was gathered in interviews at three time points: at the end of the first and second trimesters of pregnancy and shortly after delivery. We found rates of low birth weight (< 2500 grams) of 9.1% among US-born women and 2.7% among Mexico-born women (p-value = 0.02). The mean birth weight of infants of US-born women was 120.0 grams less than that of Mexico-born women when controlling for gestational age (p-value = 0.06). When smoking, alcohol and drug use during pregnancy, pre-pregnancy weight, weight gain during pregnancy, poverty level and infant sex were included in the model, the difference in mean birth weights between the two groups increased to 251.0 grams (p-value < 0.001). Controlling for nutritional intake and social support during pregnancy did not meaningfully change this estimate. We found no evidence that nutritional intake or social support during pregnancy explained the decreased birth weight of infants of US-born women of Mexican descent.
Learning Objectives:
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.