IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v61y2005i2p379-391.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What does skin color have to do with infant health? An analysis of low birth weight among mainland and island Puerto Ricans

Author

Listed:
  • Landale, Nancy S.
  • Oropesa, R.S.

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between maternal skin tone and low birth weight among Puerto Ricans, a group with a complex ancestry and skin tones that range from very light to very dark. Using data from a representative sample of Puerto Rican mothers, we assess whether skin tone has different implications for low birth weight in three geographic areas (Puerto Rico; New York City; other eastern states). The analysis shows that skin tone is unrelated to low birth weight in Puerto Rico and New York City. However, in the other eastern states in our sample, mothers with dark skin have a high risk of bearing a low birth-weight infant, relative to mothers with light skin. We interpret our findings in light of differences in the social meaning of phenotypic differences across locales.

Suggested Citation

  • Landale, Nancy S. & Oropesa, R.S., 2005. "What does skin color have to do with infant health? An analysis of low birth weight among mainland and island Puerto Ricans," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 379-391, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:61:y:2005:i:2:p:379-391
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(04)00419-8
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kotelchuck, M., 1994. "An evaluation of the Kessner Adequacy of Prenatal Care Index and a proposed Adequacy of Prenatal Care Utilization Index," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 84(9), pages 1414-1420.
    2. Karlsen, S. & Nazroo, J.Y., 2002. "Relation between racial discrimination, social class, and health among ethnic minority groups," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 92(4), pages 624-631.
    3. Krieger, N. & Sidney, S. & Coakley, E., 1998. "Racial discrimination and skin color in the CARDIA study: Implications for public health research," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 88(9), pages 1308-1313.
    4. -, 1992. "Siglas latinoamericanas," Sede de la CEPAL en Santiago (Estudios e Investigaciones) 29997, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Perreira, Krista M. & Telles, Edward E., 2014. "The color of health: Skin color, ethnoracial classification, and discrimination in the health of Latin Americans," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 241-250.
    2. Tod G. Hamilton, 2014. "Do Country-of-Origin Characteristics Help Explain Variation in Health Among Black Immigrants in the United States?," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 95(3), pages 817-834, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Borrell, Luisa N. & Kiefe, Catarina I. & Williams, David R. & Diez-Roux, Ana V. & Gordon-Larsen, Penny, 2006. "Self-reported health, perceived racial discrimination, and skin color in African Americans in the CARDIA study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(6), pages 1415-1427, September.
    2. Harris, Ricci & Tobias, Martin & Jeffreys, Mona & Waldegrave, Kiri & Karlsen, Saffron & Nazroo, James, 2006. "Racism and health: The relationship between experience of racial discrimination and health in New Zealand," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(6), pages 1428-1441, September.
    3. Johnston, David W. & Lordan, Grace, 2012. "Discrimination makes me sick! An examination of the discrimination–health relationship," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 99-111.
    4. Irizar, Patricia & Kapadia, Dharmi & Amele, Sarah & Bécares, Laia & Divall, Pip & Katikireddi, Srinivasa Vittal & Kibuchi, Eliud & Kneale, Dylan & McCabe, Ronan & Nazroo, James & Nellums, Laura B. & T, 2023. "Pathways to ethnic inequalities in COVID-19 health outcomes in the United Kingdom: A systematic map," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 329(C).
    5. Michael A Schillaci & Howard Waitzkin & E Ann Carson & Sandra J Romain, 2010. "Prenatal Care Utilization for Mothers from Low-Income Areas of New Mexico, 1989–1999," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(9), pages 1-4, September.
    6. Petra Persson & Maya Rossin-Slater, 2018. "Family Ruptures, Stress, and the Mental Health of the Next Generation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(4-5), pages 1214-1252, April.
    7. Lillian Mwanri & William Mude, 2021. "Alcohol, Other Drugs Use and Mental Health among African Migrant Youths in South Australia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-13, February.
    8. McNeill, Lorna Haughton & Kreuter, Matthew W. & Subramanian, S.V., 2006. "Social Environment and Physical activity: A review of concepts and evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(4), pages 1011-1022, August.
    9. Foorough Kavian & Kaye Mehta & Eileen Willis & Lillian Mwanri & Paul Ward & Sue Booth, 2020. "Migration, Stress and the Challenges of Accessing Food: An Exploratory Study of the Experience of Recent Afghan Women Refugees in Adelaide, Australia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-16, February.
    10. Maxime Eslier & Catherine Deneux-Tharaux & Priscille Sauvegrain & Thomas Schmitz & Dominique Luton & Laurent Mandelbrot & Candice Estellat & Elie Azria, 2020. "Association between Migrant Women’s Legal Status and Prenatal Care Utilization in the PreCARE Cohort," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-14, September.
    11. Tim Bersak & Lyudmyla Sonchak‐Ardan, 2022. "Prenatal care: Mechanisms and impacts on infant health and health care utilization," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 40(1), pages 48-65, January.
    12. Dušan Drbohlav & Dagmar Dzúrová, 2017. "Social Hazards as Manifested Workplace Discrimination and Health (Vietnamese and Ukrainian Female and Male Migrants in Czechia)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-16, October.
    13. Slaughter-Acey, Jaime C. & Brown, Tony N. & Keith, Verna M. & Dailey, Rhonda & Misra, Dawn P., 2020. "A tale of two generations: Maternal skin color and adverse birth outcomes in Black/African American women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    14. Shervin Assari & Mohsen Bazargan, 2019. "Baseline Obesity Increases 25-Year Risk of Mortality due to Cerebrovascular Disease: Role of Race," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-15, October.
    15. Daniel Powers, 2013. "Paradox Revisited: A Further Investigation of Racial/Ethnic Differences in Infant Mortality by Maternal Age," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(2), pages 495-520, April.
    16. Robert Kaestner & Lisa Dubay & Genevieve Kenney, 2002. "Medicaid Managed Care and Infant Health: A National Evaluation," NBER Working Papers 8936, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Samuel H. Fishman & S. Philip Morgan & Robert A. Hummer, 2018. "Smoking and Variation in the Hispanic Paradox: A Comparison of Low Birthweight Across 33 US States," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 37(5), pages 795-824, October.
    18. Jackson, Dylan B. & Vaughn, Michael G., 2018. "Maternal medical risks during pregnancy and childhood externalizing behavior," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 207(C), pages 19-24.
    19. Joyce, Theodore, 1999. "Impact of augmented prenatal care on birth outcomes of Medicaid recipients in New York City," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 31-67, January.
    20. Ana I. Balsa & Patricia Triunfo, 2012. "The Effectiveness of Prenatal Care in a Low Income Population: A Panel Data Approach," Documentos de Trabajo/Working Papers 1204, Facultad de Ciencias Empresariales y Economia. Universidad de Montevideo..

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:61:y:2005:i:2:p:379-391. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.