A national sample of US paternity tests: do demographics predict test outcomes?

Full Abstract

BACKGROUND:
Nearly 300,000 paternity tests are performed in the United States annually to include or exclude a male as the biological father of a child. Little is known about how well the test outcomes could be predicted simply on the basis of the subjects' social background. Our objective is to document the demographic composition of test subjects and to determine how well ethnic background and age predict paternity inclusion.

STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS:
A national database of 9999 paternity test results was formed weighted to represent the population of paternity establishment cases for the United States. Multiple regression determined the odds ratio of a paternity inclusion based on demographic variables such as race and age.

RESULTS:
The test results indicated paternity inclusions in 72 percent of cases, overall. The percent included varied little across racial and/or ethnic categories with a low of 67 percent in African Americans and a high of 82 percent among Native Americans, but these differences were not significant in multivariate analysis. The likelihood of inclusion showed a modest but significant correlation with increased maternal age. Mothers of European origin who nominated non-Europeans as fathers were less likely to identify the correct man as father.

CONCLUSION:
For any subject receiving a genetic test in a child support office, predicting a 72 percent probability that the test will show paternity inclusion offers as good an estimate of the test outcome as a subgroup estimate based on a subject's age, race, and child characteristics.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Bishai, David (D); Astone, Nan (N); Argys, Laura (L); Gutendorf, Robert (R); Filidoro, Chris (C);

Affiliation: Department of Population and Family Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland 21205-2103, USA. dbishai(-atsign-)jhu.edu

Grants: 1 R03 HD042545-01 (Agency:NICHD NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Journal: Transfusion (Transfusion), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-May; vol 46 (issue 5) : pp 849-53

Dates: Created 2006/05/11; Completed 2006/06/22; Revised 2007/11/14;

PMID: 16686854, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.