scholarly journals Trends in infants born at low birthweight and disparities by maternal race and education from 2003 to 2018 in the United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Pollock ◽  
Keith P. Gennuso ◽  
Marjory L. Givens ◽  
David Kindig

Abstract Background Understanding current levels, as well as past and future trends, of the percentage of infants born at low birthweight (LBW) in the United States is imperative to improving the health of our nation. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to examine recent trends in percentage of LBW, both overall and by maternal race and education subgroups. Studying disparities in percentage of LBW by these subgroups can help to further understand the health needs of the population and can inform policies that can close race and class disparities in poor birth outcomes. Methods Trends of percentage of LBW in the U.S. from 2003 to 2018, both overall and by race/ethnicity, and from 2007 to 2018 by education and race by education subgroups were analyzed using CDC WONDER Natality data. Disparities were analyzed using between group variance methods. Results Percentage of LBW experienced a significant worsening in the most recent 5 years of data, negating nearly a decade of prior improvement. Stark differences were observed by race/ethnicity and by education, with all subgroups experiencing increasing rates in recent years. Disparities also worsened over the course of study. Most notably, all disparities increased significantly from 2014 to 2018, with annual changes near 2–5%. Conclusions Recent reversals in progress in percentage of LBW, as well as increasing disparities particularly by race, are troubling. Future study is needed to continue monitoring these trends and analyzing these issues at additional levels. Targets must be set and solutions must be tailored to population subgroups to effectively make progress towards equitable birth outcomes and maternal health.

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (11) ◽  
pp. 689-694.e4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire E. Margerison-Zilko ◽  
Nicole M. Talge ◽  
Claudia Holzman

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 312-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Li ◽  
◽  
Zhehui Luo ◽  
Claudia Holzman ◽  
Hui Liu ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Hamilton ◽  
Paola Langer ◽  
Caitlin Patler

The 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program granted work authorization and protection from deportation to more than 800,000 young, undocumented immigrants who arrived to the United States as minors. We estimate the association between this expansion of legal rights and birth outcomes among 72,613 singleton births to high-school-educated Mexican immigrant women in the United States from June 2010 to May 2014, using birth records data from the National Center for Health Statistics. Exploiting the arbitrariness of the upper-age cutoff for DACA eligibility and using a difference-in-differences design, we find that DACA was associated with improvements to the rates of low birthweight and very low birthweight, birthweight in grams, and gestational age among Mexican immigrant mothers.


Kidney Cancer ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Lauren E. Wilson ◽  
Lisa Spees ◽  
Jessica Pritchard ◽  
Melissa A. Greiner ◽  
Charles D. Scales ◽  
...  

Background: Substantial racial and socioeconomic disparities in metastatic RCC (mRCC) have persisted following the introduction of targeted oral anticancer agents (OAAs). The relationship between patient characteristics and OAA access and costs that may underlie persistent disparities in mRCC outcomes have not been examined in a nationally representative patient population. Methods: Retrospective SEER-Medicare analysis of patients diagnosed with mRCC between 2007–2015 over age 65 with Medicare part D prescription drug coverage. Associations between patient characteristics, OAA receipt, and associated costs were analyzed in the 12 months following mRCC diagnosis and adjusted to 2015 dollars. Results: 2,792 patients met inclusion criteria, of which 32.4%received an OAA. Most patients received sunitinib (57%) or pazopanib (28%) as their first oral therapy. Receipt of OAA did not differ by race/ethnicity or socioeconomic indicators. Patients of advanced age (>  80 years), unmarried patients, and patients residing in the Southern US were less likely to receive OAAs. The mean inflation-adjusted 30-day cost to Medicare of a patient’s first OAA prescription nearly doubled from $3864 in 2007 to $7482 in 2015, while patient out-of-pocket cost decreased from $2409 to $1477. Conclusion: Race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status were not associated with decreased OAA receipt in patients with mRCC; however, residing in the Southern United States was, as was marital status. Surprisingly, the cost to Medicare of an initial OAA prescription nearly doubled from 2007 to 2015, while patient out-of-pocket costs decreased substantially. Shifts in OAA costs may have significant economic implications in the era of personalized medicine.


Author(s):  
Edgar Corona ◽  
Liu Yang ◽  
Eric Esrailian ◽  
Kevin A. Ghassemi ◽  
Jeffrey L. Conklin ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction Esophageal cancer (EC) is an aggressive malignancy with poor prognosis. Mortality and disease stage at diagnosis are important indicators of improvements in cancer prevention and control. We examined United States trends in esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) mortality and stage at diagnosis by race and ethnicity. Methods We used Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data to identify individuals with histologically confirmed EAC and ESCC between 1 January 1992 and 31 December 2016. For both EAC and ESCC, we calculated age-adjusted mortality and the proportion presenting at each stage by race/ethnicity, sex, and year. We then calculated the annual percent change (APC) in each indicator by race/ethnicity and examined changes over time. Results The study included 19,257 EAC cases and 15,162 ESCC cases. EAC mortality increased significantly overall and in non-Hispanic Whites from 1993 to 2012 and from 1993 to 2010, respectively. EAC mortality continued to rise among non-Hispanic Blacks (NHB) (APC = 1.60, p = 0.01). NHB experienced the fastest decline in ESCC mortality (APC = − 4.53, p < 0.001) yet maintained the highest mortality at the end of the study period. Proportions of late stage disease increased overall by 18.5 and 24.5 percentage points for EAC and ESCC respectively; trends varied by race/ethnicity. Conclusion We found notable differences in trends in EAC and ESCC mortality and stage at diagnosis by race/ethnicity. Stage migration resulting from improvements in diagnosis and treatment may partially explain recent trends in disease stage at diagnosis. Future efforts should identify factors driving current esophageal cancer disparities.


Author(s):  
Jay J. Xu ◽  
Jarvis T. Chen ◽  
Thomas R. Belin ◽  
Ronald S. Brookmeyer ◽  
Marc A. Suchard ◽  
...  

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic in the United States has disproportionately impacted communities of color across the country. Focusing on COVID-19-attributable mortality, we expand upon a national comparative analysis of years of potential life lost (YPLL) attributable to COVID-19 by race/ethnicity (Bassett et al., 2020), estimating percentages of total YPLL for non-Hispanic Whites, non-Hispanic Blacks, Hispanics, non-Hispanic Asians, and non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Natives, contrasting them with their respective percent population shares, as well as age-adjusted YPLL rate ratios—anchoring comparisons to non-Hispanic Whites—in each of 45 states and the District of Columbia using data from the National Center for Health Statistics as of 30 December 2020. Using a novel Monte Carlo simulation procedure to perform estimation, our results reveal substantial racial/ethnic disparities in COVID-19-attributable YPLL across states, with a prevailing pattern of non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanics experiencing disproportionately high and non-Hispanic Whites experiencing disproportionately low COVID-19-attributable YPLL. Furthermore, estimated disparities are generally more pronounced when measuring mortality in terms of YPLL compared to death counts, reflecting the greater intensity of the disparities at younger ages. We also find substantial state-to-state variability in the magnitudes of the estimated racial/ethnic disparities, suggesting that they are driven in large part by social determinants of health whose degree of association with race/ethnicity varies by state.


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