Massachusetts Personal Injury News
United States Ranks 29th in Infant Mortality
According to a recent report, the United States has fallen further behind other developed countries when it comes to infant mortality, despite the amount of money spent on health care.
The infant mortality rate was 6.86 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 2005, which hardly changed from the rate of 6.89 deaths per 1,000 births in 2000. In 1900, the rate was 100 deaths per 1,000 live births.
In 2004, the United States fell to the 29th ranking in the world in infant mortality, which was the latest year that data was available from all countries. This ranking ties the United States with Poland and Slovakia. The prior year, the United States ranked 27th in stark comparison to 1960 in which the United States ranked 12th.
The report was released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which believes that the plateau in mortality has to do with a 9 percent increase in premature births over the same time period and to stalled progress in saving the earliest pre-term infants. Premature births and low birth weight account for the majority of infant deaths in the United States.
There have been some medical advances that have helped save premature infants, including prenatal steroids that hasten lung development and other treatments that help premature infants breath. However, there has yet to be a breakthrough in medical advancement.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, infant mortality rates vary by race and ethnicity, from a high rate of 13.63 deaths per 1,000 live births among Black women to a low 4.42 for Cuban-Americans. The report stated that differences in socioeconomic status and access to medical care did not explain the gap entirely. The common thread of these conditions is that they are preventable, which is where the United States is falling behind the other countries.
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