STUDY: INFANT MORTALITY UNDERESTIMATED

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 8, 1992                   TAG: 9201080139
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHICAGO                                LENGTH: Short
STUDY: INFANT MORTALITY UNDERESTIMATED
U.S. health records may severely underestimate infant mortality for some minority groups because of errors and inconsistencies in the way race is reported, according to a federal study.
The study, for years 1983 to 1985, found infant mortality was slightly overreported for whites, but underreported for all other races, because some babies were incorrectly reported as white.
Mortality was underestimated by 79 percent for Filipinos, 49 percent for Japanese and 47 percent for American Indians, the researchers reported in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.
"There were indications these discrepancies existed, but the magnitude is startling," said lead author Robert A. Hahn, an epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
One of nation's prime health aims spelled out by the Department of Health and Human Services last year is to reduce the differences in health status - such as infant mortality rates and life expectancies - between population groups, including racial and ethnic groups.
His team compared racial classifications on birth and death certificates for all infants born from 1983 through 1985 and who died in their first year - a total of 117,188 babies.
"We should be paying more attention about how this information is collected," Hahn said in a telephone interview.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB