The Effect of Maternal Race, Ethnicity, and Nativity on Macrosomia Among Infants Born in the United States

Janardhan Mydam; Pranav Mellacheruvu; Brahm Coler; Soumini Chintala; Kiran S Depala; Shreeya Sangani

doi:10.7759/cureus.39391

The Effect of Maternal Race, Ethnicity, and Nativity on Macrosomia Among Infants Born in the United States

Cureus. 2023 May 23;15(5):e39391. doi: 10.7759/cureus.39391. eCollection 2023 May.

Authors

Janardhan Mydam¹, Pranav Mellacheruvu², Brahm Coler², Soumini Chintala³, Kiran S Depala⁴, Shreeya Sangani¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neonatology, John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County, Chicago, USA.
² Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, Washington State University, Spokane, USA.
³ Department of Pediatrics, Phoenix Children's Hospital, Phoenix, USA.
⁴ Department of Public Health, Saint Louis University, St Louis, USA.

Abstract

Objectives: This study aims to elucidate the influence of race, ethnicity, and nativity on macrosomia rates, hypothesizing that higher rates are observed among White non-Latina mothers and United States (US)-born mothers.

Study design: We analyzed data from 1,791,718 US births sourced from the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the associations between macrosomia rates and maternal race, ethnicity, and nativity.

Results: After excluding non-singleton, preterm, post-term births, and those with missing data, six maternal cohorts were identified: White non-Latina US-born (1,147,096) and foreign-born (75,542), Black non-Latina US-born (174,540) and foreign-born (32,200), and Latina US-born (223,968) and foreign-born (137,515). White non-Latina US-born mothers had the highest rates of excessive gestational weight gain (58.9%). Black non-Latina US-born mothers exhibited the highest rates of pre-pregnancy diabetes (0.7%) and obesity (29.5%). Macrosomia rates were highest among White non-Latina US-born mothers (10.7%) compared to other cohorts. After adjusting for socioeconomic and health-related factors, this group maintained the highest odds of macrosomia (OR: 1.876; 95%CI 1.832-1.922, P<0.001).

Conclusion: Our findings reveal that White non-Latina US-born mothers experience the highest macrosomia rates, which persist after adjusting for known confounders. These results have significant implications for the development of gestational surveillance tools and targeted public health interventions aimed at improving pregnancy outcomes among high-risk cohorts.

Keywords: ethnicity; infants; macrosomia; nativity; neonatalogy; race.