Ethnic differentials in neonatal and postneonatal mortality: a birth cohort analysis by a binary variable multiple regression method.

Abstract

Abstract Ethnic differentials in neonatal and postneonatal mortality in a birth cohort of Spanish surname, white (non‐Spanish), and nonwhite infants in Houston, Texas, were analyzed with legitimacy status, mother's age, birth order, and birth weight controlled separately and simultaneously. In the presence of all factors, Spanish surname and non‐Spanish white infants had a neonatal mortality risk about 13 per cent below average; nonwhite (primarily Black) infants, 30 per cent above average. Adjusted for all four factors, the risk for nonwhites was 8 per cent below average and for Spanish surname infants 2 per cent below average, while it rose to almost 5 per cent above average for non‐Spanish white infants. Birth weight and legitimacy status were responsible for most of the change. The four factors had less effect on postneonatal mortality, with legitimacy status seeming to have the greatest influence.