Rutgers University, School of Social Work, 536 George St., New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 2010 Mar;70(5):684-91. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.11.013. Epub 2009 Dec 26.
There are well-documented and as yet unexplained disparities in birth outcomes by race in the USA. This paper examines the sources of disparities in low birth weight between blacks and whites in the US, by focusing on differences in disparities between two very distinct geographic areas, the Deep South and the rest of the country. Two findings from prior research drive the analyses: first, health overall is worse in the Deep South states; second, race disparities are smaller in the Deep South than in the rest of the nation. A number of potential explanations for these findings are examined using nationally representative data on approximately 8,000 children born in the US in 2001. Results suggest that, first, almost all of the increased burden of low birth weight in the Deep South states may be explained by differences in race composition and socioeconomic status between the Deep South and rest of the nation. Second, the slightly lower race disparities found in the Deep South states are being driven not by better outcomes for black mothers, but by two other factors: higher returns to socioeconomic status for black mothers and much worse outcomes for poor white mothers in the Deep South compared with the rest of the country.
美国的出生结果在不同种族之间存在着记录良好但尚未得到解释的差异。本文通过关注两个截然不同的地理区域——美国南部腹地和其他地区之间差异的差异，考察了美国黑人和白人之间低出生体重差异的来源。两项先前研究的发现推动了分析：第一，美国南部腹地各州的整体健康状况较差；第二，与全国其他地区相比，南部腹地的种族差异较小。使用大约 2001 年在美国出生的 8000 名儿童的全国代表性数据，对这些发现的一些潜在解释进行了检验。结果表明，首先，美国南部腹地各州低出生体重的负担增加几乎完全可以用南部腹地与全国其他地区之间的种族构成和社会经济地位的差异来解释。其次，在南部腹地各州发现的种族差异略小，不是因为黑人母亲的结果更好，而是因为其他两个因素：黑人母亲的社会经济地位回报更高，以及与全国其他地区相比，南部腹地贫困白人母亲的结果更差。
