Findings from Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Outcomes through One Year of Life in Infants Born Prematurely: A Population-Based Study in California are described by lead author Kayla L. Karvonen.

In our study we found that after discharge from the hospital, rates of rehospitalization and infant mortality for preterm babies vary by race/ethnicity. We found that Black preterm infants born between 32-36 weeks were 60% more likely to die after being discharged from the hospital than White infants. Black and Hispanic very preterm infants were also more likely to be rehospitalized than White very preterm infants. All these findings were true even after controlling for the birth weight of the babies, maternal medical factors, and family socioeconomic status.

Our study does not tell us why we are seeing these findings. We suspect that there are other variables we did not include in the study that may be explaining this difference, such as other social determinants of health. Additionally, there are variables that are difficult to measure like structural racism — racist policies and laws that lead to in unequal distribution of resources to minority communities– and disparities in quality of care delivered in the NICU that are impacting the ability to survive and thrive after being discharged from the hospital for our smallest infants.