Neighborhood Poverty in Combination with Older Housing Is Associated with Adverse Birth Outcomes: A Study on Ubiquitous Lead Risk among 1 Million Births in Texas

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether housing age in combination with neighborhood poverty, as a proxy for fetal exposure to heavy metal lead, is associated with adverse birth outcomes. We linked population-level birth certificate data for Black, Hispanic, White and Other women, stratified by nativity, from 2009–2011 in Texas (n = 1,040,642) to census the tract-level median housing age/poverty level from the American Community Survey, 2007–2011. Tracts with median housing age values before 1975 with a poverty level of 20% or more were considered to be neighborhoods with a high risk of exposure to deteriorating lead-based paint. We estimated multi-level models to examine the relationship between neighborhood housing age/poverty level and each dependent variable (preterm birth, low birth weight, small-for-gestational age). The odds of adverse birth outcomes were significantly higher for mothers living in high-poverty neighborhoods with median housing built before the lead-based paint ban. Increased awareness of—and improved methods of alleviating— ubiquitous lead-based paint exposure in Texas may be necessary interventions for positive developmental trajectories of children. Allocating federal funds for place-based interventions, including universal lead paint mitigation, in older, high-poverty neighborhoods may reduce the disproportionate risk of adverse birth outcomes.