Journal Article

Associations between low Apgar scores and mortality by race in the United States: A cohort study of 6,809,653 infants

Boardman, James P., Gillette, Emma, Calvert, Clara, Stock, Sarah J., John, Jeeva

2022

Overview

Apgar scores measure newborn health and are strongly associated with infant outcomes, but their performance has largely been determined in primarily white populations. Given the majority of the global population is not white, we aim to assess whether the association between low Apgar score and mortality in infants varies across racial groups. The association between Apgar scores and mortality varies across racial groups. Low Apgar scores are associated with mortality across racial groups captured by United States (US) records, but are worse at discriminating infants at risk of mortality for black and non-Hispanic non-Asian infants than for white infants. Apgar scores are useful clinical indicators and epidemiological tools; caution is required regarding racial differences in their applicability.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Anencephaly / Apgar score / Babies / Biology and Life Sciences / Birth certificates / Birth weight / Births / Body mass index / Care and treatment / Cohort analysis / Congenital diseases / Diagnosis / Epidemiology / Ethics / Ethnicity / Genetic aspects / Gestational age / Health aspects / Hispanic people / Inequality / Infant mortality / Infants / Infants (Newborn) / Maternal mortality / Medicine and Health Sciences / Neonates / Obesity / Patient outcomes / People and Places / Population / Population studies / Race / Racial differences / Risk factors / Variables