Frisbie W P, Forbes D, Pullum S G
Population Research Center, University of Texas at Austin 78712, USA.
Demography. 1996 Nov;33(4):469-81.
Research based on hospital records demonstrates that many births classified as normal according to conventional demographic measurement are intrauterine growth-retarded (IUGR) when evaluated clinically; also, in addition to birth weight and gestational age, it is necessary to focus on a third dimension, maturity, in analyses of birth outcomes. Although clinical studies allow more precise classification, the small number of cases tends to result in unreliable estimates of rates and in loss of generalizability. The fetal growth ratio, a measure recently shown to be a valid proxy for maturity, is used here to develop a classification system based on combinations of weight, gestational age, and maturity, which we apply in a comparative analysis of a large data set. The results show large differences in the distribution of compromised births across racial and ethnic groups, as well as significant race/ethnic differentials in the risk of infant mortality associated with adverse outcomes.
基于医院记录的研究表明，许多根据传统人口统计学测量被归类为正常的出生情况，在临床评估时属于宫内生长受限（IUGR）；此外，在分析出生结局时，除了出生体重和孕周外，还需要关注第三个维度——成熟度。尽管临床研究能实现更精确的分类，但病例数量较少往往会导致发生率估计不可靠且丧失普遍性。胎儿生长比是最近被证明可有效代表成熟度的指标，本文以此建立了一个基于体重、孕周和成熟度组合的分类系统，并将其应用于一个大型数据集的比较分析。结果显示，不同种族和族裔群体中出生情况不佳的分布存在巨大差异，与不良结局相关的婴儿死亡风险也存在显著的种族/族裔差异。
