Relative contributions of maternal social and biological characteristics to birth weight and gestation among mothers of different childhood socioeconomic status

Abstract

There has been no reported systematic attempt to quantify the relative unique contribution of multiple social and biologic maternal characteristics to birth weight and gestational time among mothers of differing childhood socioeconomic backgrounds. We examined this issue in three nativity cohorts from a population of 766 black prenatal clinic patients in New York City using a series of stepwise hierarchical multiple regression analyses. Different variable sets contributed to birth weight variance in each group, although total variance explained was similar for the three. Since the foreign‐born cohort represented a different higher childhood socioeconomic background, but was similar to the other groups in current SES, the differing observed associations of variable sets to birth weight may be related to childhood socioeconomic status. In all groups, social factors show more effect on gestation among births more than 2,500 grams than for smaller babies and thus account for more total explained birth weight variance for births over 2,500 grams.