Birth outcomes of Asian-Indian-Americans

Objective: This study examines the maternal characteristics and birth outcomes of infants of U.S. resident Asian-Indian-American (AIA) mothers and compares those to infants of U.S. resident Whites and African-American (AA) mothers. Methods: Single live births to U.S. resident mothers with race/ethnicity coded on birth certificate as AIA, non-Hispanic White, or non-Hispanic AA were drawn from NCHS 1995 to 2000 U.S. Linked Live Birth/Infant Death files. Results: Compared to AAs or Whites, AlAs have the lowest percentage of births to teen or unmarried mothers and mothers with high parity for age or with tow educational attainment. After taking these factors into account, AIA had the highest risk of LBW, small-for-gestational age and term SGA births but a risk of infant death only slightly higher than Whites and far less than AAs. Conclusions: The birth outcomes of AlAs do not follow the paradigm that more impoverished minority populations should have greater proportions of tow birth weight and preterm births and accordingly greater infant mortality rates. (c) 2007 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.