Racial/ethnic disparities in infant mortality
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Panagiota Kitsantas
Abstract
Aims: This study examines predictors of neonatal and postneonatal mortality among infants born to black, white, and Hispanic women.
Methods: Linked birth/infant death records from North Carolina for the period 1999–2007 were the source of data. Logistic regression models were constructed to estimate the effect of maternal and infant characteristics on neonatal (<28 days) and postneonatal (28–364 days) mortality.
Results: Analyses revealed no racial/ethnic differences in neonatal mortality, but increased risk among black infants for postneonatal death. Inadequate prenatal care was associated with an increased risk for neonatal mortality across all three racial/ethnic groups. Younger maternal age and lower educational levels were associated with postneonatal deaths for black and white women, but not Hispanic. A previous child loss, being unmarried and labor/delivery complications increased the risk for postneonatal mortality only among white women. Black infants had higher rates of death attributed to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), infections, low birth weight (LBW)/prematurity, respiratory conditions, and injuries.
Conclusions: Early initiation of prenatal care, access to risk-appropriate obstetric and neonatal services, and participation in intervention programs that support parenting of LBW/preterm infants throughout the first year of life are likely to yield the greatest impact in reducing infant mortality.
©2010 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
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Articles in the same Issue
- The Declaration of Dubrovnik
- The prediction and prevention of preterm birth and its consequences: an unmet challenge to perinatal medicine, science and society
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- Women's attitudes to and perceptions of oral health and dental care during pregnancy
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- Improving obstetric estimation of outcomes of extremely premature neonates: an evolving challenge
- Atosiban vs. ritodrine as a tocolytic in external cephalic version at term: a prospective cohort study
- Evaluation of placental function using near infrared spectroscopy during fetal growth restriction
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- Original articles – Fetus
- Cholinergic signal activated renin angiotensin system associated with cardiovascular changes in the ovine fetus
- The potential of 4D sonography in the assessment of fetal neurobehavior – multicentric study in high-risk pregnancies
- Predictive value of pulse oximetry for the development of fetal acidosis
- Racial/ethnic disparities in infant mortality
- Original articles – Newborn
- Antenatal steroid treatment reduces childhood asthma risk in very low birth weight infants without bronchopulmonary dysplasia
- Roster of Perinatal Societies
- Roster of Perinatal Societies
- Congress Calendar
- Congress Calendar
