Related Experiment Videos
Mortality among infants of black as compared with white college-educated parents
K C Schoendorf1, C J Hogue, J C Kleinman
1Division of Analysis, National Center for Health Statistics, Hyattsville, MD 20782.
Insights
Black infants born to college-educated parents have higher mortality rates than white infants solely due to higher low birth weight rates. Normal birth weight infants show equal mortality rates between black and white infants.
Area of Science:
- Perinatal Health
- Infant Mortality Disparities
- Sociodemographic Factors in Health
Background:
- Significant disparities exist in U.S. infant mortality rates between black and white infants.
- These disparities are linked to higher rates of low birth weight and increased mortality among normal birth weight black infants.
- This study investigates these gaps by controlling for sociodemographic variables in college-educated parents.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the causes of the black-white infant mortality gap.
- To determine if socioeconomic status, controlled via parental education, influences infant mortality disparities.
- To assess the independent effects of birth weight and race on infant mortality.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the National Linked Birth and Infant Death Files (1983-1985).
- Analyzed infant mortality rates for 865,128 white and 42,230 black infants born to college-educated parents.
- Compared mortality rates before and after excluding infants with low birth weight (<2500g).
Main Results:
- Black infants had a higher mortality rate (10.2/1000) than white infants (5.4/1000), with an adjusted odds ratio of 1.82.
- Low birth weight rates were over double for black infants (7%) compared to white infants (3%), but mortality within this group was similar.
- Excluding low-birth-weight infants resulted in equal mortality rates for black and white infants.
Conclusions:
- Among infants born to college-educated parents, the higher mortality rate for black infants is exclusively attributable to higher rates of low birth weight.
- Black and white infants of normal birth weight exhibit equivalent mortality rates.
- The study highlights the critical role of birth weight in explaining racial disparities in infant mortality within a socioeconomically controlled population.
Background:
In the United States, black infants are twice as likely to die as white infants; this difference reflects both black infants' higher rates of low birth weight and the higher mortality among black infants of normal birth weight. We studied mortality in infants born to college-educated parents in order to investigate this gap while controlling for sociodemographic variables.
Methods:
We used the National Linked Birth and Infant Death Files for 1983 through 1985 to calculate infant mortality rates for children born to college-educated parents. The study population consisted of 865, 128 white infants and 42,230 black infants. A separate effect of birth weight was assessed by examining mortality rates before and after the exclusion of infants weighing less than 2500 g at birth (low-birth-weight infants).
Results:
In this population, the infant mortality rate was 10.2 per 1000 live births for black infants and 5.4 per 1000 live births for white infants; the adjusted odds ratio for death among black infants was 1.82 (95 percent confidence interval, 1.64 to 2.01). The rate of low birth weight was more than twice as high among blacks (7 percent) as among whites (3 percent), although the mortality rate in this group was not higher among blacks than among whites. Black infants were three times as likely as white infants to die of causes attributable to perinatal events, including prematurity. They were no more likely to die of the sudden infant death syndrome. After the exclusion of low-birth-weight infants, the mortality rates for black and white infants were equal.
Conclusions:
In contrast to black infants in the general population, black infants born to college-educated parents have higher mortality rates than similar white infants only because of their higher rates of low birth weight. Black and white infants of normal birth weight have equivalent mortality rates.