Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #112182

Tina Kruthoff, MEd, Employer: University of CA-San Francisco/ CA Dept. of Health Services, MCAH Branch, Student: Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health, 1615 Capitol Ave. MS 8304, PO BOX 997420, Sacramento, CA 95899-7420, 916-650-0364, tkruthof@dhs.ca.gov

“Hispanic Paradox” is the term that has been coined to refer to the generally better birth outcomes of foreign-born Hispanic women as compared to US-born Hispanic women. Better outcomes include lower rates of low birth weight infants, prematurity, and infant death. Few studies have analyzed these outcomes for non-Hispanic foreign-born populations. In recent years, some Midwestern states have experienced strong growth in the population of African-American women who are African-born. If a “Hispanic paradox” is also evident for the African-American population, the recent increase in the proportion of foreign-born African-Americans in some states may have an impact on epidemiologic analyses of birth outcomes, such as infant mortality.

This study has two main purposes: 1) to determine whether African-born African-American women currently residing in a Midwestern state experience better birth outcomes than their US-born counterparts, and 2) to analyze the impact of African-born African-American women's outcomes on overall state birth outcomes, including infant mortality rates.

Study data are from a 1998-2003 linked birth-infant death cohort file and are analyzed using SAS 8.2.

The results of this study will be of interest to states that may have an increasing number of African-born refugees and immigrants. The African-American birth outcome rates may differ when taking in account maternal place of birth.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to

• Discuss the epidemiological paradox of better foreign-born birth outcomes when compared to US-born birth outcomes.
• Analyze the need to enumerate the number of foreign-born mothers as a proportion of US-born mothers before calculating birth outcome data, such as infant mortality rates.

Keywords: Birth Outcomes, Immigrants

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.