2026 Symposium Archive (Statesboro)
Faculty Mentor
Jing Kersey
Location
Russell Union Ballroom
Type of Research
On-going
Session Format
Poster Presentation
College
Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health
Department
Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Environmental Health Sciences
Abstract
The Georgia PRAMS 2016–2020 data were used to assess whether maternal smoking during pregnancy is associated with infant birth weight among singleton live births while accounting for key sociodemographic factors. Birth weight recorded in 250-gram midpoints was converted to a continuous gram measure and analyzed with maternal smoking status, age group, education, and marital status. A complete-case strategy was used because missingness was < 10%, yielding an analytic sample of 3,175 observations. We fit an ordinary least squares multiple linear regression with categorical predictors represented by indicator variables. After adjustment, infants born to non-smoking mothers weighed, on average, 163.5 g more than infants born to mothers who smoked (SE=66.2; p = 0.0136). Infants of mothers who were not married weighed 150.4 g less than those of married mothers (SE=30.9; p < 0.001). The maternal age group was not statistically significant in the adjusted model. Education showed a non-monotone pattern, with one notable contrast indicating lower birth weight for 12 years of education compared with 0–8 years (mean=−190.3 g; SE=76.3; p = 0.0127), suggesting education may be acting as a proxy for heterogeneous social, behavioral, and healthcare pathways rather than a purely linear gradient. Model diagnostics indicated acceptable linear model assumptions and minimal multicollinearity (adjusted variance Inflation Factor (VIF) near 1), though the overall explained variance was modest (R² ≈ 0.02). These findings are consistent with fetal growth restriction linked to prenatal tobacco exposure and broader social disadvantage. From a public health perspective, even modest average shifts in birth weight can meaningfully affect the population burden of low birth weight. Results support reinforcing prenatal smoking-cessation interventions and pairing them with strategies that address upstream determinants (e.g., stress, support, and access to care). Future work should incorporate survey weights and additional clinical covariates (gestational age, parity, comorbidities, prenatal care) to strengthen causal and population-level inference.
Program Description
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DOI
10.20429/GS4.2026.025
Start Date
4-23-2026 2:00 PM
End Date
4-23-2026 4:00 PM
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Copyright
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Recommended Citation
Biswas, Purbasha and Kersey, Jing, "Determinants of Infant Birth Weight in Georgia: An Analysis of the PRAMS 2016–2020 Study" (2026). GS4 Student Scholars Symposium. 220.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/research_symposium/2026/2026/220
Determinants of Infant Birth Weight in Georgia: An Analysis of the PRAMS 2016–2020 Study
Russell Union Ballroom
The Georgia PRAMS 2016–2020 data were used to assess whether maternal smoking during pregnancy is associated with infant birth weight among singleton live births while accounting for key sociodemographic factors. Birth weight recorded in 250-gram midpoints was converted to a continuous gram measure and analyzed with maternal smoking status, age group, education, and marital status. A complete-case strategy was used because missingness was < 10%, yielding an analytic sample of 3,175 observations. We fit an ordinary least squares multiple linear regression with categorical predictors represented by indicator variables. After adjustment, infants born to non-smoking mothers weighed, on average, 163.5 g more than infants born to mothers who smoked (SE=66.2; p = 0.0136). Infants of mothers who were not married weighed 150.4 g less than those of married mothers (SE=30.9; p < 0.001). The maternal age group was not statistically significant in the adjusted model. Education showed a non-monotone pattern, with one notable contrast indicating lower birth weight for 12 years of education compared with 0–8 years (mean=−190.3 g; SE=76.3; p = 0.0127), suggesting education may be acting as a proxy for heterogeneous social, behavioral, and healthcare pathways rather than a purely linear gradient. Model diagnostics indicated acceptable linear model assumptions and minimal multicollinearity (adjusted variance Inflation Factor (VIF) near 1), though the overall explained variance was modest (R² ≈ 0.02). These findings are consistent with fetal growth restriction linked to prenatal tobacco exposure and broader social disadvantage. From a public health perspective, even modest average shifts in birth weight can meaningfully affect the population burden of low birth weight. Results support reinforcing prenatal smoking-cessation interventions and pairing them with strategies that address upstream determinants (e.g., stress, support, and access to care). Future work should incorporate survey weights and additional clinical covariates (gestational age, parity, comorbidities, prenatal care) to strengthen causal and population-level inference.
