The Center for Advanced Social Science Research Presents
Julien Teitler
Associate Professor of Social Work and Sociology, and
Director of the Social Indicators Survey Center
Columbia University
"Low Birthweight among Immigrants to the United States:
Cohort and Duration Effects"
Wednesday, September 26, 2012, 12:30-1:50pm
295 Lafayette Street, 4th Floor
Conference Room, 4156
We use the 1998-2009 National Health Interview Survey to systematically investigate cohort
differences in low birthweight among U.S.-born children of mothers arriving in the U.S. between
1955-2009 and giving birth between 1980-2009, cohort-adjusted patterns in low birthweight by
maternal duration of residence in the U.S., and cohort-adjusted patterns in low birthweight by
maternal duration of residence stratified by age at arrival and region of origin. These analyses are
necessary for understanding immigrant women’s health trajectories, as proxied by their infants’
birthweight, and for understanding how living in the U.S. affects health more generally. We
found a consistent deterioration in infant health with successive immigrant cohorts, a curvilinear
association between duration and low birthweight controlling for cohort effects, that Asians
benefit more than Hispanics from migrating to the U.S., and that low birthweight decreases with
duration among women who came to the U.S. as adults but increases with duration among those
who came as children.