Infant Mortality Rates: U.S. Ranks Poorly Among Industrialized Nations

New information released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics links preterm births and infant mortality rates in the United States. The U.S. ranked 30th out of 31 countries in overall infant mortality rates, showing 6.9 of every 1,000 live births resulted in death, a statistic that is complemented by the fact that 1/8 of the births in the U.S. were preterm, a high rate compared to numbers from European countries.

The statistics used to produce the study entitled “Behind International Rankings of Infant Mortality: How the United States Compares with Europe” were garnered from international rankings and data compiled from the NCHS and the European Perinatal Health Report. Marian F. MacDorman and T.J. Mathews of the NCHS Division of Vital Statistics’ Reproductive Statistics Branch authored the study, which uses data through the year 2005, the last year that international rankings were available.

For preterm infants born less than 37 weeks into gestation, the United States ranked lower than most European countries, but the concerning numbers are in later stages of gestation. Infant mortality rates in that group are higher than most other countries, which led to an overall ranking of 30th. Singapore ranked the lowest in infant mortality with 2.1 per every 1,000 live births, and Sweden and Hong Kong were close behind with 2.4. But the U.S. ranked 30th, with only Slovakia coming in with a higher number. Countries in between included Canada, Israel, Japan, Australia, and Cuba.

According to the findings of the NCHS, the main cause of the high infant mortality rate in the U.S. is due to preterm births, as 1 of every 8 babies in the U.S. are born preterm. In comparison, countries like Ireland and Finland only reported 1 in 18 births as preterm. However, if the U.S. had the same gestational age distribution of births as a country like Sweden, the infant mortality rate would decline by approximately 33 percent. Thus, preventing preterm births is the key to lowering the number of infant deaths.

The concern to researchers is the seeming inability to lower the rates. Infant mortality rates in the U.S. have risen by 36 percent since 1984, despite medical advances, though the numbers have stayed somewhat stationary since the year 2000. Thus, the solution lies in the hands of policy makers and the medical industry to prevent preterm births in order to break through and finally lower the infant mortality rates that compare so negatively to that of other medically advanced nations in the world.