Persistent Racial Disparities in US Infant Mortality, 1995-2017

In the United States, black babies are significantly more likely to die at birth than white babies. In order to determine the relationship between the risk of neonatal death and race, this research conduct a national-based study of 89.7 million live singleton births between 1995 and 2017. We assessed whether the racial/ethnic disparity in infant mortality narrowed, persisted, or widened over these years, which coincides with a period of substantial improvements in neonatal care. Our study contributes to a growing literature on racial disparities in infant mortality.