Racial and ethnic disparities in postnatal growth of infants born before 30 weeks of gestation

Abstract Objective To assess racial and ethnic disparities in birth weight (BW), time to BW regain, and mean growth velocity during the accelerated weight gain phase. Study Design A retrospective study was conducted using a de-identified dataset from the Pediatrix Medical Group from 2010 to 2020. The dataset categorizes infants into five racial and ethnic groups: Asian, Hispanic, Black, White, and Other, based on maternal report. The study included infants born between 23 and 29 weeks’ gestation and excluded infants without weight data. Results This study included 76,145 infants. Antenatal confounders were balanced using inverse propensity weighting. Black infants had lowest, while Hispanic infants had higher BW z-scores, when compared to White infants. Black infants took the shortest time to regain BW. Hispanic infants had the lowest mean growth velocity. Conclusion Racial and ethnic disparities in postnatal growth of infants born before 30 weeks of gestation manifest differently across growth phases.