Racial disparity in infant mortality

Abstract

In the United States, African-American infants have significantly higher mortality than white infants. Previous work has identified associations between individual socioeconomic factors and select community-level factors. In this review, the authors look beyond traditional risk factors for infant mortality and examine the social context of race in this country, in an effort to understand African-American women's long-standing birth outcome disadvantage. In the process, recent insights are highlighted concerning neighborhood-level factors such as crime, segregation, built environment, and institutional racism, other likely causes for the poor outcomes of African-American infants in this country compared with infants in most other industrialized nations.

Keywords: African-American; Infant mortality; Preterm birth; Racial disparity.