Paternal race/ethnicity and birth outcomes

S. Ma

American Journal of Public Health, 2008, vol. 98, issue 12, 2285-2292

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.

Date: 2008
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2007.117127_0

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2007.117127

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