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Paternal race/ethnicity and birth outcomes

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  • Ma, S.

Abstract

Objectives. I sought to identify whether there were associations between paternal race/ethnicity and birth outcomes among infants with parents of same- and mixed-races/ethnicities. Methods. Using the National Center for Health Statistics 2001 linked birth and infant death file, I compared birth outcomes of infants of White mothers and fathers of different races/ethnicities bymatching and weighting racial/ethnic groups following a propensity scoring approach so other characteristics were distributed identically. I applied the same analysis to infants of Black parents and infants with a Black mother and White father. Results. Variation in risk factors and outcomes was found in infants of White mothers by paternal race/ethnicity. After propensity score weighting, the disparities in outcomes by paternal or parental race/ethnicity could be largely attributed to nonracial parental characteristics. Infants whose paternal race/ethnicity was unreported on their birth certificates had the worst outcomes. Conclusions. The use of maternal race/ethnicity to refer to infant race/ethnicity in research is problematic. The effects of maternal race/ethnicity on birth outcomes are estimated to be much larger than that of paternal race/ethnicity after I controlled for all covariates. Not listing a father on the birth certificate had a strong association with outcomes, whichmight be a source of bias in existing data and a marker for identifying infants at risk.

Suggested Citation

  • Ma, S., 2008. "Paternal race/ethnicity and birth outcomes," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 98(12), pages 2285-2292.
    • Handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2007.117127_0
    DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2007.117127
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    Cited by:

    1. Borrell, Luisa N. & Kodali, Hanish & Rodriguez-Alvarez, Elena, 2021. "Interracial/ethnic marriage and adverse birth outcomes: The effect of neighborhood racial/ethnic composition," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    2. Santiago Budría & Pablo Swedberg, 2019. "The impact of multilingualism on host language acquisition," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 46(4), pages 741-766, November.
    3. Brian K Lee & Justin Lessler & Elizabeth A Stuart, 2011. "Weight Trimming and Propensity Score Weighting," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(3), pages 1-6, March.

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