U.S. Has One of the Highest Infant Mortality Rates?

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I must say - when I read this headline, I was like..."What?"

Linky

Anyone have any ideas that explain that? Because given our health care system and overall quality of life, I find this baffling.

edit: hat tip to BTA.

[ May 09, 2006, 21:05: Message edited by: Death Rabbit ]

 

I don't know. There's a lot of unwanted pregnancies among the lower income sections of the US (the study specifically listed blacks as having a VERY high rate -- I think this is more indicative of income level than race). When a child is not wanted, care is not taken to safeguard the child from SIDS or 'accidents.'

Our health care is only as good as a person can afford. Health care for the poor is substandard. I believe the countries with socialized medicine should have a significantly better system overall.

Another factor could be drug use. Babies born addicted have a fairly high mortality rate.

 

Isn't there a significant proportion of the population though who don't have access to good healthcare? The whole rich/poor divide.

Things like this make you appreciate the NHS much more.

 

It makes a certain amount of sense. Unhealthy people are more likely to have unhealthy babies.

Low birthweight is the biggest cause of infant death in the US. Many of the biggest causes of low birthweight are related to an unhealthy lifestyle by the mother.

In the US we have a population which is less healthy than, say, in Japan. The average life expectancy in Japan is higher than in the US. The reasons aren't because of health care delivery as much as they are because folks in Japan eat healthier - on average.

The US actually has better life exepctancy for low birthweight babies than pretty much anyone but the US has a higher percentage of low birthweight babies so the US has more infant deaths.

On the other hand, poor folks sometimes/often get worse health care than rich folks sometimes/often get. I don't think there is denying that.

Low income mothers are statistically less likely to be healthy than high income mothers, they are less likely to have the same medical care (in any society), etc. and it adds up to a higher infant death rate and a higher rate among the disadvantaged.

That said, the title of the article is misleading. The US is "last" artificially since they are tied with the UK for 10th out of about 200 nations.

 

Poor people 1) have worse healthcare, 2) are more likely to have children. So with a large income divide and no humane healthcare without fat insurance...

 

It absolutely comes down to the healthcare system. The high mortality rate among babies in the U.S. has been present for years. This study is recent, but I've seen similar studies from over a decade ago that basically said the same thing - that the U.S. is among the worst of INDUSTRIALIZED nations.

The highest infant mortality rates are in Africa, but there it is because of substandard hospitals and care being given. In the U.S. it is because about 1 in 5 Americans have no health insurance, which means (assuming equal distribution) that 1 in 5 pregnant women are getting little or no care during their pregnancy.

 

Also with poverty comes poor education. With poor education, I suppose, comes a lack of awareness of things such as a healthy diet. Malnourished mothers dont exactly improve the chance of survival for those unborn/newborn either, I'd wager, since the child feeds through its mother.
Never mind that the lower classes probably cannot afford the quality food stuff anyway.

 

Access to healthcare is only part of the equation and, according to an older Congressional Budget Office Study that was done under Clinton, not the largest part of the problem.

According to that study, there are a few bigger problems:

1. a definitional problem - the US is more likely to include very premature babies in its infant mortality rate than some other industrialized nation. This will bump up the US' numbers relative to others.

2. there is a higher percentage of unhealthy babies born in the US than in some other nations. More unhealthy babies mean more deaths.

You add those factors inequal access to health care for some segments in society and you get a higher rate.

And, I think that Americans have more unhealthy babies isn't surprising since Americans lead a less healthy lifestyle than folks in other places - on average.

 

Does anybody know where to find the UK infant mortality rate?

 

Shell, for what it's worth - from the CIA World Factbook

5,08 deaths/1.000 live births