Evidence map›Paper›PMID 29218496›Full record

ArticleJournal of racial and ethnic health disparities2018

Testing the Association Between Traditional and Novel Indicators of County-Level Structural Racism and Birth Outcomes among Black and White Women.

Brittany D Chambers, Jennifer Toller Erausquin, Amanda E Tanner, Tracy R Nichols, Shelly Brown-Jeffy

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Article in Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 75 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
75citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

75 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Trial
  3. Article
  4. Allostatic Load, Neighborhood Disadvantage, and Birth Outcomes.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2026
    Article
  5. Review
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Review
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Racism Counterfactuals in Health Research.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2025
    Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Systemic racism and Non-Hispanic Black to Non-Hispanic White disparities in infant mortality at the county level.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2024
    Article
  20. Article

15 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Brittany D ChambersUCSF Preterm Birth Initiative- California, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA. brittany.chambers@ucsf.edu.
Jennifer Toller ErausquinDepartment of Public Health Education, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA.
Amanda E TannerDepartment of Public Health Education, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA.
Tracy R NicholsDepartment of Public Health Education, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA.
Shelly Brown-JeffyDepartment of Sociology, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Despite decreases in infants born premature and at low birth weight in the United States (U.S.), racial disparities between Black and White women continue. In response, the purpose of this analysis was to examine associations between both traditional and novel indicators of county-level structural racism and birth outcomes among Black and White women. We merged individual-level data from the California Birth Statistical Master Files 2009-2013 with county-level data from the United States (U.S.) Census American Community Survey. We used hierarchical linear modeling to examine Black-White differences among 531,170 primiparous women across 33 California counties. Traditional (e.g., dissimilarity index) and novel indicators (e.g., Black to White ratio in elected office) were associated with earlier gestational age and lower birth weight among Black and White women. A traditional indicator was more strongly associated with earlier gestational age for Black women than for White women. This was the first study to empirically demonstrate that structural racism, measured by both traditional and novel indicators, is associated with poor health and wellbeing of infants born to Black and White women. However, findings indicate traditional indicators of structural racism, rather than novel indicators, better explain racial disparities in birth outcomes. Results also suggest the need to develop more innovative approaches to: (1) measure structural racism at the county-level and (2) reform public policies to increase integration and access to resources.

Indexed as

Black or African AmericanGestational AgeWhite PeopleAdultCaliforniaFemaleHealth Status DisparitiesHumansInfant, Low Birth WeightInfant, NewbornLocal GovernmentPregnancyPremature BirthRacismYoung AdultGestational ageLow birth-weightRacial disparitiesStructural racism

Identifiers

PMID29218496

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.