Adverse Infant Health Outcomes Increased After the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election Among Non-White U.S.-born and Foreign-born Mothers

Abstract

Macro-level events such as elections can improve or harm population health across existing axes of stratification through policy changes and signals of inclusion or threat. This study investigates whether rates of, and disparities in, adverse birth outcomes between racialized and nativity groups changed after Donald Trump’s November 2016 election, a period characterized by increases in xenophobic and racist messages, pol i cies, and actions in the United States. Using data from 15,568,710 U.S. births between November 2012 and November 2018, we find that adverse birth outcomes increased after Trump’s elec tion among U.S.-and for eign-born moth ers racialized as Black, Hispanic, and Asian and Pacific Islander (API), compared with the period encompassing the two Obama presidencies. Results for Whites suggest no change or a slight decrease in adverse outcomes following Trump’s election, yet this finding was not robust to checks for seasonality. Black–White, Hispanic–White, and API–White disparities in adverse birth out comes wid ened among both U.S.-and for eign-born mothers after Trump’s election. Our findings suggest that Trump’s election was a racist and xenophobic macro-level political event that undermined the health of infants born to non-White mothers in the United States.