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. 2023 Jun;116(6):471-477.
doi: 10.14423/SMJ.0000000000001569.

Racial Disparities in Preterm Birth among Pregnant Women with Obesity

Anuoluwapo Egbejimi  1 , Veronica Ajewole, Deepa Dongarwar  2 , Manvir Kaur  1 , Motun Phillips  3 , Jian Liang  4 , Mouch Fadel  1 , Lilian Lota  1 , Jeanene Simon  1 , Matthew Otule  1 , Kennedy Taylor  1 , God'Salvation Oguibe  1 , Hamisu M Salihu  2 , Omonike Olaleye  1
Affiliations

Racial Disparities in Preterm Birth among Pregnant Women with Obesity

Anuoluwapo Egbejimi et al. South Med J. 2023 Jun.

Abstract

Objectives: We assessed the impact of obesity and racial disparities on preterm birth (PTB) in the United States and sought to determine whether obesity widens the racial-ethnic disparity gap in preterm birth with a focus on non-Hispanic Black and White women.

Methods: Using birth data for the years 2014-2019 made publicly available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and obtained from the National Vital Statistics System, we conducted a cross-sectional cohort study analyzing a total of 14,864,844 births from 2014 to 2019.

Results: We observed dose-dependent changes in obesity and PTB by defining obesity in subgroups and PTB in a stratified method. PTB occurred more among non-Hispanic Black women than their non-Hispanic White and Hispanic counterparts. We observed a consistent trend of increased PTB among women with high body mass index. Racial disparity existed in PTB among pregnant obese women, with non-Hispanic Black women exhibiting the greatest risk for PTB.

Conclusions: Our work further contributes to the growing knowledge of the existence of health disparity among the Black population.

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Conflict of interest statement

A.E. and V.A. have received compensation from the Health Resources and Services Administration and the National Institutes of Health. V.A. has also received compensation from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. M.P., M.F., L.L., M.O., G.O., and O.O. have received compensation from the Health Resources and Services Administration lists past institutional funding from HRSA. The remaining authors did not report any financial relationships or conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Rates of preterm birth phenotypes by maternal BMI. BMI, body mass index.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Odds of preterm birth among obesity subtypes in comparison to women with normal BMI. BMI, body mass index.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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