Maternal Health and Health Behaviors among Foreign-Born and Native-Born Black Women: The Role of Maternal and Neighborhood Characteristics

Irma T. Elo, University of Pennsylvania
Jennifer Culhane, Drexel University

This paper contributes to the literature on neighborhood context and race/ethnic disparities in maternal health, health behaviors and birth outcomes among native-born and foreign-born black women. Several studies have shown foreign-born black women to have favorable birth outcomes compared to native-born black women. Relatively few data sets, however, permit detailed analysis of maternal health, health behaviors and birth outcomes among native-born and foreign-born blacks. This study is based on a prospective study of low-income women who sought prenatal care in 2000-2004 in community-based health centers in Philadelphia, PA. The survey data were merged with track-level measures of residential segregation, (index of dissimilarity, exposure and isolation), crime rates and survey-based measures of neighborhood-level social and physical disorder and corresponding measures based on administrative data. Maternal characteristics are available from survey data.