The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between maternal nativity status and preterm birth (PTB) or low birth weight (LBW) for Hawai'i resident mothers, to compare these relationships across different maternal race/ethnicity groups, and to identify other potential risk and protective factors related to PTB and LBW. Using the 2004 Natality Birth Data from the National Vital Statistic System of the National Center for Health Statistics, crude and adjusted odds ratios were calculated using logistic regression to determine maternal racial/ethnic-specific nativity effects on PTB and LBW. Other Asian or Pacific Islander foreign-born mothers had higher unadjusted rates of PTB, and Samoan foreign-born mothers had lower rates of LBW after adjusting for the socio-demographic covariates compared to their native-born counterparts. Given the limitation of this study particularly relating to data quality, further research is needed to identify socio-contextual factors that are involved in the relationship between nativity status and PTB/LBW.
Keywords: Nativity status; birth outcomes; low birth weight; preterm birth.