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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: AJPH.2007.117127v1 AJPH.2007.117127v2 98/12/2285    most recent Submit a response View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Ma, S. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Ma, S. Related Collections Birth Outcomes African Americans/Blacks Asians Other Child and Adolescent Health Hispanics/Latinos Native Americans Other Race/Ethnicity Minority Children

Sai Ma, PhD

At the time of study, the author was with the Pardee Rand Graduate School and Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Sai Ma, Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N Wolfe St. E4011, Baltimore, MD 21205 (e-mail: sma{at}jhsph.edu).

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 by matching 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, which might be a source of bias in existing data and a marker for identifying infants at risk.