Racial Disparities in Infant Mortality: An Analysis of Infants Born to Black Mothers in the United States
Disciplines
Maternal and Child Health | Public Health | Women's Health
Abstract (300 words maximum)
The Period Linked Birth-Infant Death data files collected by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), link infant death certificates to their corresponding birth certificates. This link gives a broad resource for examining the infant mortality rates in the United States in relation to maternal and birth characteristics. For this project we decided to analyze the data from the 2017 file that includes about 3.8 million live births and 22,341 infant deaths nationwide. Our research question asked Does the manner and underlying causes of infant death differ for infants born to Black women compared to infants born to women in other racial and ethnic groups? To address this, we chose to focus on two primary variables, (1) Maternal Race/Ethnicity specifically identifying Black/African American mothers and (2) Manner of Infant Death which records the circumstances of the infant’s death such as natural, homicide or accident. We also included three secondary variables for additional context which are Gestational Age, Birth Weight and Maternal Age since they have a direct relationship with infant mortality risk. The dataset was provided in .csv format with variables cleaned and recoded to fix any missing data. For example, any missing/unknown values in the race and cause of death fields were coded as blanks or specific numeric values that we defined as missing in SPSS. We hypothesize that infants of Black mothers will experience disproportionately higher deaths classified as natural, especially those related to preterm birth complications and low birth weight compared to infants of other races. By exploring the racial disparities in infant death outcomes this study aims to help contribute to the public health understanding of maternal and infant health inequities as well as highlight areas where interventions could potentially help reduce preventable infant mortality.
Use of AI Disclaimer
no
Academic department under which the project should be listed
CCSE – Data Science and Analytics
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Dr. Kevin Gittner
Racial Disparities in Infant Mortality: An Analysis of Infants Born to Black Mothers in the United States
The Period Linked Birth-Infant Death data files collected by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), link infant death certificates to their corresponding birth certificates. This link gives a broad resource for examining the infant mortality rates in the United States in relation to maternal and birth characteristics. For this project we decided to analyze the data from the 2017 file that includes about 3.8 million live births and 22,341 infant deaths nationwide. Our research question asked Does the manner and underlying causes of infant death differ for infants born to Black women compared to infants born to women in other racial and ethnic groups? To address this, we chose to focus on two primary variables, (1) Maternal Race/Ethnicity specifically identifying Black/African American mothers and (2) Manner of Infant Death which records the circumstances of the infant’s death such as natural, homicide or accident. We also included three secondary variables for additional context which are Gestational Age, Birth Weight and Maternal Age since they have a direct relationship with infant mortality risk. The dataset was provided in .csv format with variables cleaned and recoded to fix any missing data. For example, any missing/unknown values in the race and cause of death fields were coded as blanks or specific numeric values that we defined as missing in SPSS. We hypothesize that infants of Black mothers will experience disproportionately higher deaths classified as natural, especially those related to preterm birth complications and low birth weight compared to infants of other races. By exploring the racial disparities in infant death outcomes this study aims to help contribute to the public health understanding of maternal and infant health inequities as well as highlight areas where interventions could potentially help reduce preventable infant mortality.