TABLE 3—

Decomposition of Racial Disparities in Low Birth Weight: Brazil, 1995–2009

	AO vs EO (n = 2852), Difference, %, or Difference (SE)	ANE vs EO (n = 3539), Difference, %, or Difference (SE)	AE vs EO (n = 6608), Difference, %, or Difference (SE)
Total difference in LBW rate and difference jointly explained by variables
Difference in LBW rate (0–1)	0.0399	0.0412	0.0469
Explained difference	0.0178	0.0299	0.0439
% explained	44.6	72.6	93.6
% unexplained	55.4	27.4	6.4
Difference in LBW rate independently explained by variable categories
Prenatal visits	0.0148** (0.0034)	−0.0049* (0.0023)	0.0062** (0.0015)
Maternal fertility history	−0.0019 (0.0011)	−0.0009 (0.0007)	−0.0004 (0.0008)
Maternal health	−0.0009 (0.0013)	−0.0006 (0.0013)	−0.0046** (0.0012)
Household demographics	0.0011 (0.0013)	0.0035* (0.0015)	0.0002 (0.0011)
Socioeconomic status	0.0030 (0.0040)	0.0038 (0.0023)	0.0032* (0.0013)
Geographic location	0.0017 (0.0041)	0.0289** (0.0067)	0.0394** (0.0049)

Note. AE = African–European mixed ancestry; ANE = African–non-European mixed ancestry; AO = African-only ancestry; EO = European-only ancestry; LBW = low birth weight. The table reports the differences in LBW rate (on a scale between 0 and 1) by ancestry and the contributions of the model variables to these differences. For example, the number of prenatal care visits explains 0.0148 points of the 0.0399-point difference (or 1.48 percentage points of the 3.99 percentage-point difference) in LBW rate between infants of AO and EO ancestries. The model sample size is the sum of each African ancestry group sample and that of the EO group.

*P < .05; **P < .01.