Paradox Revisited: A Further Investigation of Racial/Ethnic Differences in Infant Mortality by Maternal Age

I reexamine the epidemiological paradox of lower overall infant mortality rates in the Mexican-origin population relative to U.S.-born non-Hispanic whites using the 1995-2002 U.S. NCHS linked cohort birth-infant death files. A comparison of infant mortality rates among U.S.-born non-Hispanic white a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Demography 2013-04, Vol.50 (2), p.495-520
Main Author: Powers, Daniel A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Age
Babies
Cultural differences
Demography
Epidemiology
Ethnicity
Female
Females
Geography
Hispanic American studies
Hispanic Americans
Hispanic or Latino - statistics & numerical data
Hispanic people
Hispanics
Humans
Immigrants
Infant
Infant Mortality
Infant Mortality - trends
Infant, Newborn
Infants
Male
Maternal & child health
Maternal Age
Medicine/Public Health
Mexico - ethnology
Migration
Mortality
MORTALITY AND HEALTH
Mortality Rates
Mothers
Noncitizens
Older parents
Paradoxes
Population
Population Economics
Predisposing factors
Race
Racial Differences
Racial differentiation
Risk Factors
Social Sciences
Socioeconomic factors
Sociology
Studies
United States - epidemiology
White people
Whites
Women
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Summary:I reexamine the epidemiological paradox of lower overall infant mortality rates in the Mexican-origin population relative to U.S.-born non-Hispanic whites using the 1995-2002 U.S. NCHS linked cohort birth-infant death files. A comparison of infant mortality rates among U.S.-born non-Hispanic white and Mexican-origin mothers by maternal age reveals an infant survival advantage at younger maternal ages when compared with non-Hispanic whites, which is consistent with the Hispanic infant mortality paradox. However, this is accompanied by higher infant mortality at older ages for Mexican-origin women, which is consistent with the weathering framework. These patterns vary by nativity of the mother and do not change when rates are adjusted for risk factors. The relative infant survival disadvantage among Mexican-origin infants born to older mothers may be attributed to differences in the socioeconomic attributes of U.S.-born non-Hispanic white and Mexican-origin women.
ISSN:0070-3370
1533-7790
DOI:10.1007/s13524-012-0152-6