Individual and County-Level Factors Associated with Compromised Birth Outcomes: Florida, 1980-2000

Jessica C. Bishop-Royse, Florida State University
Isaac W. Eberstein, Florida State University

Recent studies have suggested that the source of the widening racial disparity in infant mortality since 1980 is the shift in cause-specific infant death from causes associated with the social and environmental circumstances of an infant (i.e. SIDS) to the social and environmental circumstances surrounding the pregnancy process (i.e. prematurity and maternal/obstetric conditions). We investigate the individual and county-level socio-demographic variables associated with several measures of prematurity, as well as how these relationships have changed in Florida during the period 1980-2000. We employ state-level data from the 1980 and 2000 birth cohorts, as well as census data that was merged with the birth file. Additionally, multi-level models were used to estimate individual and county-level influences simultaneously. This study extends the current demographic research on birth weight and infant survival by considering maturity in the contect of age and sex specific fetal growth rates in addition to incorporating multi-level models.