The Socioeconomic Group Related to Infant Mortality

The Socioeconomic Group related to Infant Mortality

Despite the United States infant mortality rate decline in recent decades, the gap between those who experience infant mortality is far too discriminative and only has potential for a greater increase over time. Infant mortality is the death of an infant within the first year of life. This includes perinatal mortality, which are deaths only between the foetal viability and the end of the 7th day after delivery, neonatal mortality, which is death in the first 27 days of life, and post-neonatal death, which consists of deaths after the first 28 days of life but before one year. Infant mortality rate, or IMR, is the number of newborns dying under a year of age divided by the number of live births during the year. Infant mortality has claimed a vast percentage of children born in the past in the U.S., but due to technological advances and improvements in basic health care, the percentages have dropped immensely. However, these percentages are still higher in comparison to other developed nations even with significantly lower gross national products per capita, such as Spain and Ireland (Bilheimer, p. 3). The infant mortality rate is a common evaluation tool in determining whether a country or specific state has adequate living conditions and the status on their present economic situations. The IMR "is regarded as one of the most revealing measures of how well a society is meeting the needs of its people" (Cramer, p.299).

The three leading causes of infant death were congenital malformations, low birth weight, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), which together accounted for about 45% of all infant deaths. Low birth weight is the primary risk factor for infant mortality and most of the decline in neonatal mortality in the United States since 1970 can be attributed to increased rates of survival among low-birth weight newborns. The United States infant mortality problem primarily exists because of its birth weight distribution such that relatively more infants are born at low birth weight in the United States than in most other industrialized countries. The most common cause of infant mortality around the world before the advances in health care was dehydration from diarrhea as most care givers were unaware of the Oral Rehydration Solution, which is a mixture of salts, sugar, and water. Other common forms of infant mortality have been the result or contribution of severe cases of pneumonia, infanticide, abuse, neglect, abandonment, and lack of prenatal care.

Research has focused on the relationship between infant mortality and individual-level social, behavioral, and demographic factors, including race, socioeconomic status, maternal education, smoking during pregnancy, marital status, and maternal age (Conley and Springer, p.770). Intervening factors, such as nutrition, birth weight, and medical care, link these social factors to infant mortality (Cramer, p. 300). Figures reported from the National Vital Statistics Report in August, 2002 reveal roughly that African Americans are twice as likely to encounter infant mortality then those of Caucasian descent. In the United States, the infant mortality rates per 1,000 live births show Blacks at 13.8 and whites at 5.8 (National Vital Statistics Report, Vol. 50, No. 12, p.10). Teenage mothers are disproportionately unwed, black, high school dropouts, and poor and thus, controversy ensues because it is debated whether these factors account for teenagers' high risk of infant mortality, or whether age itself is a risk factor (Cramer, p. 299). Examining this group as it correlates to the main cause of infant mortality reveals serious issues that this group must face. Such an issue would be one of the leading causes of infant mortality, low birth weight, which has been in direct result of lack of prenatal care, nutrition, and basic health care. There is a large connection to why African Americans have such a larger percentage of infant mortality rate then those of white Americans. African Americans are typically less