WASHINGTON, D.C. – A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows the U.S. infant-mortality rate was 6.71 per 1,000 live births in 2006, down by 2 percent from the 2005 rate, but about 50 percent higher than a target set for 2010.
Infant mortality “is one of the most important indicators of the health of a nation,” the report notes, “as it is associated with a variety of factors such as maternal health, quality and access to medical care, socioeconomic conditions, and public-health practices.”
But after a century of decline, the infant-mortality rate has essentially plateaued since 2000, the CDC report shows, going up from 6.89 per 1,000 to 6.95 per 1,000 in 2002, then going up and down slightly. This is the first period of sustained lack of decline in the rate since the 1950s.
The Healthy People 2010 target goal had been 4.5 per 1,000, which is roughly where Germany and Australia are. In 2004, 22 countries had infant-mortality rates below 5, the CDC said. The United States’ ranking has fallen from 12th in the world in 1960 to 23rd in 1990 and 29th in 2004.
Worldwide, infant-mortality rates are generally lowest (below 3.5 per 1,000) in Scandinavian countries such as Sweden, Norway and Finland and in parts of East Asia, specifically Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
In actual lives, the CDC noted, the impact of the high U.S. infant-mortality rate is “considerable”: More than 28,000 children die in this country each year before their first birthday.
A major fact in the high U.S. infant-mortality rate, researchers say, is a high rate of premature births, which now account for 68.6 percent of infant deaths, up from 65.6 percent in 2000. The prematurity rate rose from 9 percent in 2000 to 12.7 percent in 2005.
The most rapid rise has been among babies born at 34 to 36 weeks of gestation, about 92 percent of whom were delivered by caesarean section, the CDC said. The rate of very premature births is also increasing, to just over 2 percent in 2005.
The infant mortality rate for infants born before 32 weeks’ gestation was 183.24 per 1,000 in 2005, not statistically different from the rate in 2000 (180.94), the CDC said. This represents a halt in a long-term downward trend.
The report shows major racial disparities in infant mortality. Non-Hispanic blacks had the highest infant mortality rate in 2005, 13.63 deaths per 1,000 births. Rates for Puerto Ricans and American Indians were above eight deaths per 1,000 live births. Cuban-Americans had the lowest rate, 4.42 deaths per 1,000. Whites had a rate of 5.75 per 1,000.
The full report is available on the CDC Web site.
