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No one answer to disparity in black, white infant mortality rates
http://www.dailypress.com/news/local...,1556896.storyThe gap between black and white infant mortality continues across the country — and in Hampton Roads it continues to be much larger than it is nationally.
Despite advances in medicine, no one answer definitively explains the disparity.
Black women in Virginia are 2.5 times more likely to experience infant mortality than women of other races, according to the state Department of Health.
In Hampton in 2007, the most recent data available, there were 4.0 white infant deaths per 1,000 live births compared with 12.7 black infant deaths. The infant mortality picture was similar in Newport News in 2007 with 4.7 white infant deaths compared with 14.3 black infant deaths.
In Hampton Roads, the leading cause of infant mortality is premature birth. Second is sudden undetermined infant death.
Dr. Jerome Strauss, dean of medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University, has conducted research that found a connection between the environment and a genetic variation that causes the fetal membrane to rupture leading to pre-term births in black women.
The research revealed a genetic variant that appears to have arisen in Africa which triples the likelihood of the fetal membrane breaking.
"That's a significant risk increase. That's not going to explain all pre-term births that occur in African Americans, but it's going to be a factor that's responsible."
Nationally, infant mortality among blacks in 2000 occurred at a rate of 14.1 deaths per 1,000 live births, according to the Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities. This is more than twice the national average of 6.9 deaths per 1,000 live births.
Thursa D. Crittenden, of the Virginia Department of Health office of minority health and public health policy, points to chronic stress which predisposes theblack woman to poor health.
"We have to stop thinking we can solve every issue and problem," she said. "We have to learn stress-reducing techniques."
In our region, the areas that have higher infant mortality rates are more urban and have a higher population of blacks, according the Beth Kavinsky, coordinator of the Eastern Virginia Perinatal Council.
While this is the case, infant mortality does not occur only in those neighborhoods, she said.
"You can have an African-American woman that makes $150,000 a year as a lawyer, and her rate does not decrease significantly just because she has a better lifestyle."
Pamela Hammond, dean of Hampton University's School of Nursing, said biology, access to health care and socioeconomic issues all contribute to disparities in general, not just when it comes to infant mortality.
"There is no one factor that causes this health disparity," she said. "It is multi-factorial."
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Originally Posted by Queen Fox
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