LOW-BIRTH-WEIGHT IN AFRICAN-AMERICANS - DOES INTERGENERATIONAL WELL-BEING IMPROVE OUTCOME

The primary antecedent of infant mortality is low birthweight. Vital s tatistics data have shown that women of low socioeconomic status, rega rdless of race, are at greater risk for delivering low birthweight inf ants; however, prevailing data show that black women of the same socio economic status as white women have a twofold higher risk of giving bi rth to an infant weighing <2500 g and a threefold risk of delivering a very low birthweight infant weighing <1500 g. There is also evidence that intergenerational effects on birth outcome exist. However, virtua lly all studies of the effect of socioeconomic status on perinatal out come have been cross-sectional; the effect of sustained intergeneratio nal well-being has not been measured. To address this gap, this study was designed to demonstrate that in an African-American population wit h sustained high socioeconomic status and equal risk factors, the birt hweight distribution and other reproductive outcomes are the same as t hose for comparable US white populations. Preliminary findings are rep orted here.