The status of infant mortality in Sweden and the United States

Abstract

A study was made of live birth rates, infant, neonatal, and postneonatal death rates, late fetal death ratios, and perinatal death ratios for Sweden and the United States for selected years, 1950-1973. Sweden has lower live birth rates, infant, neonatal, and postneonatal death rates, as well as lower perinatal death ratios. Data available on low-birth-weight live births for selected years, 1959-1970, for both countries indicated that rates in the United States were almost twice those in Sweden. Implications of these findings for the United States are discussed in light of the quantity, quality, and delivery of health care services, as well as of other factors in Sweden.