Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Jul:46:13-20.
doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2017.04.005. Epub 2017 Apr 27.

Residential segregation, political representation, and preterm birth among U.S.- and foreign-born Black women in the U.S. 2008-2010

Claire Margerison-Zilko  1 , Maria Perez-Patron  2 , Catherine Cubbin  3
Affiliations

Residential segregation, political representation, and preterm birth among U.S.- and foreign-born Black women in the U.S. 2008-2010

Claire Margerison-Zilko et al. Health Place. 2017 Jul.

Abstract

Although racial residential segregation is associated with preterm birth (PTB) among non-Hispanic black (NHB) women in the U.S., prior work suggests that increased black political power arising from segregation may be protective for infant health. We examined associations between residential segregation, black political representation, and preterm birth (PTB) among U.S- and foreign-born NHB women in major U.S. cities using birth certificate data from 2008 to 2010 (n=861,450). Each 10-unit increase in segregation was associated with 3-6% increases in odds of PTB for both U.S.- and foreign-born NHB women. Black political representation was not associated with PTB and did not moderate the association between residential segregation and PTB.

Keywords: Birth certificate; Nativity; Political representation; Preterm birth; Residential segregation.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Acevedo-Garcia D, Osypuk T, 2008. Invited commentary: residential segregation and health-the complexity of modeling separate social contexts. Am. J. Epidemiol 168 (11), 1255–1258. - PubMed
    1. Adler NE, Stewart J, 2010. Health disparities across the lifespan: meaning, methods, and mechanisms. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci 1186, 5–23. - PubMed
    1. Alexander GR, Himes JH, Kaufman RB, Mor J, Kogan M, 1996. A United States national reference for fetal growth. Obstet. Gynecol 87, 163–168. - PubMed
    1. Ananat EO, Washington E, 2009. Segregation and Black political efficacy. J. Public Econ 93, 807–822.
    1. Anthopolos R, James SA, Gelfand AE, Miranda ML, 2011. A spatial measure of neighborhood level racial isolation applied to low birthweight, preterm birth, and birthweight in North Carolina. Spat. Spatio-Tempo. Epidemiol 2, 235–246. - PubMed