Ethnicity-Specific Modeling of Infant Mortality in the United States: 1995-2013

Infant mortality serves as a valuable indicator of the overall health of a nation, and the United States consistently ranks among the highest in the proportion of infant deaths when compared to other developed countries. This study aims to analyze the disparities in infant mortality between infants of African-American, Hispanic-American, and non-Hispanic European-American descent from 1995 through 2013, as mediated through sex, birthweight, and gestational age. The data were obtained from the CDC’s Linked Birth and Infant Death Data and analyzed biannually for a total of ten years studied. It was found that cumulative mortality declined from 1995 to 2013 for all groups. African-American infants consistently had a greater cumulative mortality than European-American and Hispanic-American infants; however, this disparity decreased over the eighteen years analyzed. These results indicate that while significant disparities in infant mortality still exist, they are decreasing over time as infant mortality continues to decline.