The Effects of Stress on Birth Weight in Low-Income, Unmarried Black Women

Objective

Low birth weight leads to adverse health outcomes throughout life, is particularly high among Blacks, and may contribute to health disparities between Whites and Blacks in the United States. Stress is among the many potential contributors to birth weight, but key sources of stress have not yet been clearly identified. The objective of this paper is to describe the relationships between multiple sources of maternal stress and birth weight.

Methods

Linear regression is used to analyze data from two control groups (n = 554) of the Nurse–Family Partnership trial in Memphis, Tennessee. Birth weight was obtained from medical records and other variables are from interviews during pregnancy (1990–1991). Four stresses were considered: abuse, anxiety, financial stress, and neighborhood disorganization.

Results

When the four sources of stress were included together in the same model and known non-stress-related influences were controlled for, only neighborhood was a significant contributor to birth weight. When each stress was entered into the model individually, abuse, anxiety, and neighborhood disorganization were all significant.

Conclusion

These results suggest that neighborhood disorganization has the most robust impact on birth weight, whereas abuse and anxiety seem to contribute via a source of shared variance. Further research is warranted to determine appropriate interventions.