Objectives: To examine the association of maternal race/ethnicity only and parental race/ethnicity jointly with adverse birth outcomes (low birth weight, small for gestational age, preterm birth, and infant mortality) among New York City women.
Methods: We used Bureau of Vital Statistics, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene birth- and death-linked data from 2000 to 2010 (n = 984 807) to quantify the association of maternal race/ethnicity and parental race/ethnicity concordance or discordance with each outcome.
Results: By maternal race/ethnicity, infants of non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, and Asian women had risks of adverse birth outcomes between 10% and 210% greater than infants of non-Hispanic White women. Infants of non-Hispanic Black, Asian, and Hispanic couples exhibited higher risk of adverse birth outcomes than infants of non-Hispanic White couples. Moreover, parental racial/ethnic discordance was associated with an increased risk of adverse birth outcomes, with highest risks for pairings of Asian men with non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, and Hispanic women, and of Asian women with non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic men.
Conclusions: Parental race/ethnicity discordance may add stress to women during pregnancy, affecting birth outcomes. Thus, parental race/ethnicity should be considered when examining such outcomes.