In the majority of urban cities, the geographic separation of the races is almost complete. We used 1989-1993 Illinois vital records and 1990 U.S. census data to determine the extent to which this residential pattern contributes to the racial differential in very low birth weight (<1500g, VLBW) births. The VLBW rate was 2.8% for African-American infants (N=106,360) compared to 0.9% for white infants (N=50,027); p<0.01. Measures of community-level stress differed between the races. However, the African-American (AA) disadvantage persisted independent of ecologic variables (Table). We conclude that 1) ecologic variables are associated with the VLBW rates of white but not African-American infants and 2) further research is needed to better ascertain the contribution of place of residence to the racial disparity in infant birth weight.

Table 1
Full size table