Perspective on Racial-Ethnic Birth Weight

Objective: Comprehensive birth weight analyses of single primipa: Comprehensive birth weight analyses of single primipa: rous infants of Samoan, Caucasian, Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian/Part Hawaiian, Japanese racial ethnic groups. Sampling of intrauterine growth designed to refl ect antecedent intra- and extra-environmental factors and insure uniform racial-ethnic data for any later genetic and phenotypic birth weight modeling. Study Design: Based upon predetermined relevant gestational age Study Design: Based upon predetermined relevant gestational age Study Design: criteria, 121, 197 single primiparous infants birth weight records analyzed. The racial-ethnic basic research paradigms also specifi ed parental diallelic crosses representing intra-and inter-ethnic racial ancestry. Hypotheses tested: 1) the mean birth weight of single primiparous infants of Samoan parentage will be signifi cantly larger than the mean birth weight of similar single primiparous infants of Caucasian, Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian/Part Hawaiian, and Japanese parentage; 2) mean birth weight of single primiparous infants of only Samoan intra-parentage will be signifi cantly larger than the mean birth weights of single primiparous infants of only Caucasian, Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian/Part Hawaiian, and Japanese parentage and 3) mean birth weight of single primiparous infants Samoan mothers and non-Samoan fathers will be signifi cantly larger than single primiparous infants of Caucasian, Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian/ Part Hawaiian, and Japanese mothers and non-Caucasian, non-Chinese, non-Filipino, non-Hawaii/Part Hawaiian and non-Japanese father. Conclusion: Two of three proposed associated hypotheses adopted: Conclusion: Two of three proposed associated hypotheses adopted: Conclusion: namely, that the mean birth weight of single primiparous infants of one, primary Samoan maternal parentage, and two, of only Samoan maternal and paternal parentage, will be signifi cantly larger than their comparative counterparts. Hypotheses 3 based on Samoan mothers and non-Samoan fathers is tenable, but questionable relative to Caucasian parental background. Research highlights importance of control for potentially confounding variables and assets inherent in independent racial-ethnic cohort investigations. An immediate demanding basic task in contemporary pediatric research is to identify infant predictors of childhood obesity. Within this perspective birth weight (BW) can be viewed one, as a basic launching platform for plotting the diagnostic development of childhood obesity and two, as an initial target for initiating intervention to control future growth. In line with this prospective disease forecasting strategy is an increased awareness of the role of genomic factors in developing obesity. Methods The context for the present research study is focused, namely, to ultimately determine whether BW may be viewed as a predictive stage event in the early pathogenesis of non-syndromic child obesity. Recent studies draw attention to the prevalence of obesity by raceethnicity (RE) and specifi cally, to signifi cantly higher rate in Samoans (S). 1-5 The substantially higher mean birth weight (MBW) data for Samoan (S) compared to Caucasian (C), Chinese (Ch), Filipino (F), Hawaiiian – part Hawaiian (H) and Japanese (J) RE groups 6 are viewed as a potential harbinger of obesity, but require further documentation. Validation based on gestational age (GA) specifi c analysis must eliminate the primary objection about customary approaches comparing MBWs between diverse populations, 7 namely, the impact of underlying antecedent intra- and extra-environmental factors on BW. Measuring antecedent effects conceivably produces a “normal” status between RE BW when comparisons are made across basic covariates. Furthermore, another inherent result ensues if diallelic crosses representing intra- and inter-ethnic ancestry of the studied populations are sampled: the RE group analyses of BW under the proposed new format presumably would insure uniform data sets for any later RE genetic and phenotypic BW modeling. Fundamentally, this study compares fetal growth curves, based on the MBW of C, Ch, F, H, J and S single primiparous infants (SPI) at specifi ed GA. The RE of each infant is the same as that of the mother. To evaluate parental infl uence RE is delineated in terms of diallelic crosses; 8 that is, parentage from the same intra-ethnic (SI), or different (DI), inter-ethnic ancestry. Specifi cally, it is hypothesized that (1), the MBWs of SPI of S maternal parentage will be signifi cantly larger than the MBWs of similar SPI infants of C, Ch, F, H, and J parentage; (2), MBWs of SPI of only S parentage will be signifi cantly larger than those of similar SPI infants of only C, Ch, F, H, and J parentage; and (3), MBWs of SPI of S mothers and non-Samoan fathers will be signifi cantly larger than SPI of C, Ch, F, H, and J mothers and non-C, non-Ch, non-F, non-H and non-J father. Resolution of these questions are viewed as fundamental to pursuing other signifi cant related obesity research questions Analysis