quote: Black baby girls born weighing 2.2 pounds or less are more than twice as likely to survive as white baby boys born at the same weight, when many preemies are still too tiny to make it on their own, University of Florida researchers have found.
quote: Analyzing data from more than 5,000 premature births, UF researchers pinpointed a link between gender and race and the survival rates of babies born at extremely low weights, according to findings released today (Jan. 3) in the journal Pediatrics.
quote: Baby girls of both races had the strongest advantage when born weighing less than 1,000 grams, about 2 pounds or as much as a quart of milk, Morse said. Girls had nearly twice the odds of surviving as baby boys did, and black infants also had a slight survival advantage over whites, the research shows. Overall, black baby girls were twice as likely to survive compared with white baby boys, 1.8 times more likely to survive than black boys and 1.3 times more likely to live than white baby girls.
quote:“We have known in general that females tend to have better survival rates than males and blacks better than whites. But quantifying that and finding if there was a statistical significance had yet to be done.”
quote: Hein says the findings of the UF study do not surprise him. Prior research has shown that black women tend to have more premature babies than women of other races, possibly because their babies mature a little earlier and faster, he said.
There isn’t conclusive evidence yet to explain why girls and black infants have better chances of survival, Morse said. But female preemies’ lungs tend to be more developed at birth, which could be part of the explanation, Morse said.
In general it is known that females live longer than males (aside from the fact that females in general tend to half healthier lifestyles), so it might me some natural tendency in nature to support the survival of females since they carry the offspring.
About the race, it's really interesting, i think because this adds to advantages of different races (race which to my knowledge mostly is a consequence of regional adaptation.. in terms of weather and climate). Some sort of regional adaption either paired or came about that allows for earlier births, or survival of babies born too early.
I'm just throwing ideas around, because I find this discovery fascinating, and would like to see how race and gender would contribute to premature infant survival.
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That is really interesting. We should cite this study to any White Supremist we have a chance to meet.
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quote:Originally posted by enochville: That is really interesting. We should cite this study to any White Supremist we have a chance to meet.
Actually, this study gives more ammo to Supremacists of either race. I can just see Louis Farrakhan holding a press conferance and announcing that the deaths of premature black infants obviously is the result of White racist hospital workers who purposely give them inferior medical care.
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And the white supremacists will go for the 'well of course, blacks are tougher physically, but they don't have the brains' angle.
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This is not exactly new information - five years ago, when I was given a tour of the NICU while pregnant with my twins the nurses all told us that females did better than males and black females were the hardiest of all preemies.
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I will be passing this along to my mom. My boyfriend is black and once a week I have to listen to her rant about sickle cell anemia.
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Funny story - a week before Aerin was born (14 weeks premature), the on-call OB was talking to Andrew and me. He mentioned that girls do better than boys (which we already knew). Then he said, "Actually, black girls do the best," paused, looked at Andrew and me (we're both white) and said, "But I guess it's a little late for that."
The two 23-weekers in the NICU were both black girls and they're both going home soon, though not without lasting medical problems. The nurses refer to the white male preemies as "wimpy little white boys."
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I wonder if there's a difference between African blacks and American blacks, as there is with the genes for type II diabetes. They posit that survival of the arduous journey on slave ships across the Atlantic selected for the type II diabetes genes, which convey advantage during times of famine. That is just a guess, though, and now that I write it out, it sounds a lot like scientific just-so storytelling to me. Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote:I will be passing this along to my mom. My boyfriend is black and once a week I have to listen to her rant about sickle cell anemia.
I'm confused. Are blacks more likely have this disorder? Or mixed race babies?
Yes. Sickle-cell trait (i.e., being heterozygous for the gene that causes SCA if you have both copies) is protective against malaria, which has historically been endemic in areas of Africa. The SCA gene is thought to have been selected for in those of African descent for this very reason. (I wonder if there are higher rates of sickle-cell trait in "white" Africans? I don't know, myself.)
Regarding the initital post, the news article is referring to a recent article in Pediatrics. The Pediatrics article details a population study of 5000+ extremely low birth weight (ELBW) premature infants, but it also has a bibliography that would be useful for anyone wanting to read up on the many prior studies that have established this.
quote:quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I will be passing this along to my mom. My boyfriend is black and once a week I have to listen to her rant about sickle cell anemia. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm confused. Are blacks more likely have this disorder? Or mixed race babies?
Yep, but it's one of those deals where either a person has the alleles or they don't. It's not latent. You can test for it at any time, it'll show up.
I found out that I have the trait when I was around 11 or 12. It doesn't matter so much unless I want to have kids with someone else who has the trait, then it gets tricky, as then we have a one out of four possibility-- you all learned about Punnett squares, right-- that our kid isn't going to be fit for this world.
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Shanna, have you been tested? If you don't have sickle cell trait, there's nothing to worry about.
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