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- Title
US birth weight/gestational age-specific neonatal mortality: 1995-1997 rates for whites, hispanics, and blacks.
- Authors
Alexander, Greg R; Kogan, Michael; Bader, Deren; Carlo, Wally; Allen, Marilee; Mor, Joanne
- Abstract
In recent years, gains in neonatal survival have been most evident among very low birth weight, preterm, and low birth weight (LBW) infants. Most of the improvement in neonatal survival since the early 1980s seems to be the consequence of decreasing birth weight-specific mortality rates, which occurred during a period of increasing preterm and LBW rates. Although the decline in neonatal mortality has been widely publicized in the United States, research suggests that clinicians may still underestimate the chances of survival of an infant who is born too early or too small and may overestimate the eventuality of serious disability. So that clinicians may have current and needed ethnic- and race-specific estimates of the "chances" of early survival for newborn infants, we examined birth weight/gestational age-specific neonatal mortality rates for the 3 largest ethnic/racial groups in the United States: non-Hispanic whites, Hispanics, and non-Hispanic blacks. Marked racial variation in birth weight and gestational age-specific mortality has long been recognized, and growing concerns have been raised about ongoing and increasing racial disparities in pregnancy outcomes. Our purpose for this investigation was to provide an up-to-date national reference for birth weight/gestational age-specific neonatal mortality rates for use by clinicians in care decision making and discussions with parents.
- Publication
Pediatrics, 2003, Vol 111, Issue 1, pe61
- ISSN
1098-4275
- Publication type
Journal Article
- DOI
10.1542/peds.111.1.e61