Black Infant Deaths Tied to Birth Weight

The higher percentage of premature and low birth weight babies among blacks is crucial in explaining these statistics. Independent of race, very low birth weight babies--those under 3.3 pounds--are about 90 times more likely to die by age 1 than normal birth weight babies, according to Rowley. The infant death rate of low birth weight babies--born at between 3.3 pounds and 5.5 pounds--is seven times higher than normal birth weight babies.

The researchers analyzed data from the National Center for Health Statistics covering 865,128 white infants and 42,230 black infants born between 1983 and 1985. All of the children were born to college-educated mothers and fathers. In these groups, the infant mortality rate was 10.2 per 1,000 live births for black infants, and 5.4 per 1,000 live births for white infants, suggesting that a higher parental educational level corresponds to an overall lower infant death rate in both groups.

The actual death rates for low birth weight babies were slightly lower for blacks than for whites. But about 7% of the black infants had low birth weights compared with about 3% of the white infants.

This higher percentage of low birth weight babies explained the overall racial disparity in infant death rates, the report said. If low birth weight babies had been excluded, the death rates for black and white infants would have been equal.

The study found that black or white babies of normal weight with college-educated parents have an equal chance of surviving the first year of life. But in the general population, black infants of normal birth weight have almost twice the infant mortality rate of comparable white babies.

In addition, black babies and white babies from families with college-educated parents have comparable rates of the sudden infant death syndrome as well as preventable mortality.