Design and Study Population
The study was carried out in a large inner-city tertiary care university
teaching hospital in Virginia. Almost 2,000 babies are born each year in
this hospital of which about 30% are Whites, 40% African Americans and
30% Hispanics or Latinos. A convenience sample of 803 mother-newborn
dyad singletons were retrospectively recruited in the study using
electronic health records (EHRs). The data included a sample of patients
born from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2019 divided almost equally
yearly (i.e. almost 90 patients selected each year). The IRB of the
Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine approved the study
as expedited.