reports<\/a> on the racial gap in American infant mortality rates: \u201cBlack babies born in America are more than twice as likely as white ones to die before their first birthdays.\u201d <\/p>\nFor some time, \u201cinfant mortality has generally declined at a faster rate for blacks than whites, leading to hope that the disparity might eventually disappear.\u201d Recently, that downward trend has stopped: \u201cAccording to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association<\/em>, black infant mortality in the United States stopped falling around 2012. The paper found that if black babies had died at the same rate as white ones, in 2015 nearly 4,000 infant deaths would have been averted.\u201d<\/p>\nPrematurity is the main reason, but no one entirely knows the causes of prematurity. The mother\u2019s health (blood pressure, weight) and habits (smoking) are factors, but there are also environmental and genetic factors. The<\/em> Economist<\/em> says, \u201cBlack mothers are more likely than white ones to be poor, unmarried and very young\u2014three variables that are strongly associated with higher infant mortality,\u201d but admits that \u201cthese factors only partially explain why black babies die at higher rates.\u201d Even when age and medical care are factored out, \u201cblack women are still more likely than white ones to have babies that are born too early or weighing too little.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Economist reports on the racial gap in American infant mortality rates: \u201cBlack babies born in America are more than twice as likely as white ones to die before their first birthdays.\u201d For some time, \u201cinfant mortality has generally declined at a faster rate for blacks than whites, leading to hope that the disparity might […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1882,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-infant-mortality","category-race"],"yoast_head":"\n
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