Very Low Birth Weight and Perinatal Periods of Risk: Disparities in St. Louis

Table 3

Prevalence of risk and preventive factors for VLBW among all live births/fetal deaths, St. Louis City and County, 2000–2009 (𝑁=160,189).

Risk/Preventive Factors	Overall	Race			County
	Total Population	Black	White	P-value	St. Louis County	St. Louis City	P-value
	(𝑁=160,189)	(𝑛=67,493)	(𝑛=92,696)		(𝑛=111,462)	(𝑛=48,727)
	%	%	%		%	%
Maternal Age				<.0001			<.0001
<20	11.1	20.3	4.5		8.3	17.6
21–34	74.2	72.2	75.6		74.6	73.2
>34	14.7	7.5	19.9		17.2	9.2
Maternal Education				<.0001			<.0001
<13 years	41.5	65.0	24.6		32.8	61.6
13 + years	58.5	35.0	75.4		67.2	38.4
Medicaid (yes)	40.9	70.4	19.5	<.0001	31.3	62.9	<.0001
Inadequate Prenatal Care (yes)	10.8	20.8	3.8	<.0001	7.4	18.7	<.0001
Parity				<.0001			<.0001
Nulliparous	40.5	37.3	42.9		40.5	40.6
Primiparous	29.8	26.5	32.2		31.3	26.3
Multiparous	29.7	36.2	24.9		28.2	33.1
Smoking (yes)	11.5	12.2	11.1	<.0001	9.5	16.2	<.0001
Diabetes (yes)	3.9	4.1	3.8	<.0001	3.9	3.9	.42
Chronic Hypertension (yes)	1.8	2.7	1.0	<.0001	1.6	2.1	<.0001
Gestational Hypertension (yes)	5.7	7.2	4.6	<.0001	5.5	6.3	<.0001
Eclampsia (yes)	0.07	0.09	0.05	<.001	0.07	0.08	.46