The relationships among acculturation, biobehavioral risk, stress, corticotropin-releasing hormone, and poor birth outcomes in Hispanic women.

Objective: To determine the predictive ability of acculturation as an antecedent of stress, biobehavioral risk, corticotropin-releasing hormone levels, and poor birth outcomes in pregnant Hispanic women.

Design: A prospective, observational design with data collected at 22-25 weeks of gestation and at birth through medical record review.

Setting: Public prenatal health clinics in south Texas serving low-income women.

Participants: Self-identified Hispanic women who had singleton pregnancies, no major medical risk complications, and consented to answer questionnaires as well as a venipuncture and review of their prenatal and birth medical records.

Main Outcome Measures: Gestational age, Apgar scores, length, weight, percentile size, and head circumference of the infant at birth.

Results: Significant differences were seen in infant birth weight, head circumference, and percentile size by acculturation. English acculturation predicted stress, corticotropin-releasing hormone, biobehavioral risk, and decreased gestational age at birth.

Conclusions: Investigation must continue to understand the circumstances that give rise to the decline in birth outcomes observed in Hispanics with acculturation to the dominant English culture in the United States.