Low Birth Weight — Not a Black-and-White Issue

作者：ELLICE S. LIEBERMAN · 发表于：New England Journal of Medicine · 年份：1995 · DOI：10.1056/nejm199501123320209 · 被引用次数：22 · 研究领域：Birth, Development, and Health、Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet、Child and Adolescent Health

Black women in the United States remain at greater risk of bearing low-birth-weight infants (those weighing less than 2500 g) than white women. In 1991, 13.5 percent of black mothers gave birth to low-birth-weight infants, as compared with only 5.8 percent of white mothers.1 The reasons for this disparity are not fully understood. Low birth weight can be the result of shortened gestation (preterm delivery), poor intrauterine growth resulting in an infant smaller than expected for his or her gestational age, or both. Black women in this country are twice as likely to give birth to premature infants and infants . . .