Mexican paradox

The Mexican paradox is the observation that the Mexican people exhibit a surprisingly low incidence of low birth mass, contrary to what would be expected from their socioeconomic status (SES). This appears as an outlier in graphs correlating SES with low-birth-weight rates.

It has been proposed that resistance to changes in diet are responsible for the positive birth weight association for Mexican-American mothers.^[1]

Nevertheless, the medical causes of lower rates of low birth weights (LBW) among birthing Mexican mothers has been called into question.^[2]

The results of the study showed that the mean birth weight of Mexican-American babies was 3.34 kg (7.37 lbs), while that of non-Hispanic White babies was 3.39 kg (7.48 lbs.). This finding re-emphasized the independence of mean birth weight and LBW. This however did not refute the discrepancies in LBW for Mexicans.

The study also showed that the overall preterm birth rate was higher among Mexican Americans (10.6%) than non-Hispanic Whites (9.3%).

The overall hypothesis of the authors was that this finding reflected an error in recorded gestational age, described in a strongly bimodal birth-weight distribution at young gestational ages for Mexican-Americans.

See also

• French paradox
• List of paradoxes
• Low birth weight paradox, concerning infant mortality rates for smoking mothers

References

1. ^ McGlade MS, Saha S, Dahlstrom ME (December 2004). "The Latina paradox: an opportunity for restructuring prenatal care delivery". Am J Public Health 94 (12): 2062–5. doi:10.2105/AJPH.94.12.2062. PMC 1448590. PMID 15569952. http://www.ajph.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=15569952. 
2. ^ Buekens P, Notzon F, Kotelchuck M, Wilcox A (August 2000). "Why do Mexican Americans give birth to few low-birth-weight infants?". Am. J. Epidemiol. 152 (4): 347–51. doi:10.1093/aje/152.4.347. PMID 10968379. http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/152/4/347. 

Other sources

• Solow B (22 January 2003). "The "Mexican Paradox"". Independent Weekly. http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A18907. 
• Padilla YC, Boardman JD, Hummer RA, Espitia M (23 March 2002). "Is the Mexican American "Epidemiologic Paradox" Advantage at Birth Maintained through Early Childhood?". Social Forces 80 (3): 1101–23. doi:10.1353/sof.2002.0014. ISSN 0037-7732. 

External links

• Xiong X, Buekens P, Vastardis S, Wu T (2006). "Periodontal disease as one possible explanation for the Mexican paradox". Med. Hypotheses 67 (6): 1348–54. doi:10.1016/j.mehy.2006.05.059. PMID 16935435. http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0306987706004361. 
• Magaña A, Clark NM (February 1995). "Examining a paradox: does religiosity contribute to positive birth outcomes in Mexican American populations?". Health Educ Q 22 (1): 96–109. doi:10.1177/109019819502200109. PMID 7721605. http://heb.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/22/1/96.