African-American women are three times more likely to deliver babies three to 17 weeks prematurely than Caucasian women, according to a review of Missouri birth statistics by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
In addition, African-American women are more likely to deliver babies prematurely in subsequent pregnancies.
The researchers analyzed data from the Missouri Department of Health’s maternally linked database of all births in Missouri between 1989 and 1997, adjusting for such variables as socioeconomic status, education level, cigarette smoking and maternal medical conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and eclampsia. Full-term birth is considered to be between 37 weeks and 42 weeks of gestation.
Results of the analysis appear in the February issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
The data showed that 8.8 percent of births to African-American women were between 20 weeks and 34 weeks gestation, or nearly three times the 2.95 percent of premature births to Caucasian women. In addition, African-American women were nearly four times as likely to deliver babies between 20 weeks and 28 weeks gestation than Caucasian women.
African-American women also were nearly 5.5 times more likely to have recurrent preterm births than Caucasian women.