A Comparison of the U.S. Birth Outcomes among Mexican Women by Maternal Nativity with Covariate Density Defined Mixture of Logistic Regressions

Furrina F. Lee, University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY)
Timothy B. Gage, University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY)
Erin O'Neill, University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY)
A DiRienzo, University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY)

The study examines the effects of maternal nativity on birth outcome and infant mortality by applying Covariate Density Defined mixture of logistic regressions (CDDmlr) to Mexican American cohorts from the 2001 US national linked-birth-death-file. Nativity is dichotomized as Mexico-born versus US-born. Within each nativity stratum, CDDmlr identifies “normal” and “compromised” births in terms of fetal development. Both “normal” and “compromised” births have higher mean birth weight (by 42 and 87 grams, respectively) by nativity. So overall, births to Mexico-born women have a 20% lower risk of low-birth-weight. Nativity has a “direct” protective effect on infant mortality among “normal” births, reducing mortality by 24% across sex. However, it does not seem to affect mortality among “compromised” births. Therefore, the 15% decrease in the overall infant mortality by nativity is primarily attributed to “normal” births. Also, results support the view that birth weight is not on the causal pathway to mortality.