Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 6, 1991 TAG: 9104060324
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The decline, which will be announced Monday, was to 9.1 deaths for 1,000 live births in 1990 from 9.7 deaths for 1,000 in 1989. The figures are in the Monthly Vital Statistics Report from the National Center for Health Statistics.
The infant-death rate has become embroiled in politics in recent months, producing angry exchanges between the Congress and the White House over a plan by President Bush to combat the problem. Some congressional members have called Bush's overall proposal inadequate as well as criticized it because a large part of the money would come from current programs providing prenatal care.
The latest government figures on infant deaths show a decline of 6 percent from the previous year, as against the average year-to-year decline in the 1980s of 2.5 percent. Because the rate is based on counts of all infant deaths in the country in the first year of life, relatively small changes are considered significant. The last year a decline exceeded this one was in 1981, when the rate fell to 11.9 for 1,000 live births from 12.6.
Although infant mortality has improved as medical care has advanced, progress against infant deaths began to slow in the early 1980s, and the United States lags behind many other industrialized nations in this basic measurement of health care.
Moreover, the infant-deaths rate has long been higher for blacks than for whites. The latest figures available showed that in 1988 the rate was 17.6 for 1,000 live births among blacks as against 8.5 for 1,000 live births for whites.
by CNB