Restrictive sub-federal immigration policy climates and very preterm birth risk among US-born and foreign-born Hispanic mothers in the United States, 2005-2016

Immigration policy climate may have pervasive effects on the health of immigrants and their families. We examine how living in a state at the time of delivery with a more restrictive immigration policy climate impacts risk of very preterm birth (VPTB) among Hispanic mothers in the United States. We used data from the United States live birth files, 2005-2016. We fit generalized linear mixed models predicting VPTB including information on individual (e.g., age, parity, specific Hispanic origin group) and geographic (e.g., county level poverty, ethnic density) risk determinants. Living in a state with a more restrictive immigration policy climate is associated with a slight increase in odds of VPTB for Hispanic women (aOR: 1.07 (1.04-1.10)).