Race, ethnicity and birth-weight: Hawaii 1983 to 1986.

A study of racial/ethnic-specific mean infant birth-weights reported on 1968 to 1972 live birth-weight certificates for Oahu, Hawaii is reviewed here. The 1983 to 1986 data confirm those earlier results: (a) The Hawaiian group is significantly heavier in mean birth-weights than other cohorts during the preterm period (33 to 36 weeks gestational age); (b) statistically significant differences also were present in mean birth-weights for the term and post-term periods (37 to 45 weeks gestational age); and (c) the ranking of cohorts from heaviest to lightest in mean birth-weights is Caucasian, Hawaiian, Japanese and Filipino respectively. The data raises 2 questions: (1) Which birth-weight standards are most applicable for Asian and Pacific Islanders; and (2) what are the implications of the race/ethnic-specific mean birth-weight differences relative to mortality, morbidity and developmental outcome?