In Search of the Promised Land: County-Level Disadvantage and Low Birth Weight among Black Mothers of the Great Migration

This study measured the association between destination county disadvantage and odds of low birth weight during the last decade of the Great Migration. We used the US Census from 1970 as well as the birth records of first-time Black mothers who migr ated from the South collected through the National Center of Health Statistics from 1973 to 1980 (n = 154,145). We examined three measures of area-based opportunity: Black male high school graduation rate, Black poverty rate, and racialized economic residential segregation. We used multilevel logistic regression, where mothers were nested within US counties, to quantify the relationship between county disadvantage and low birth weight. After adjusting for individual risk and protective factors for infant health, there was no relationship between county opportunity measures and low birth weight among migrators. Although high socioeconomic opportunity is typically associated with protection of low birth weight, we did not see these outcomes in this study. These results may support that persistent racial discrimination encountered in the North inhibited infant health even as migrators experienced higher economic opportunity relative to the South.
Source: Journal of Urban Health - Category: Health Management Source Type: research