THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 26, 1995 TAG: 9512260030
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARIE JOYCE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Concerned that this suburban city has infant-mortality rates higher than some urban areas around the country, Virginia Beach's health director has launched an investigation.
Dr. Suzanne Dandoy is not floating any theories yet. ``All (the rate) has done so far is say to me, `What is going on here?' ''
According to a national report on public health in big cities, Virginia Beach in recent years has had a higher infant-mortality rate than Oakland, Calif., San Francisco, Dallas and several other large cities. However, the rates are still lower than in neighboring Norfolk and Portsmouth.
Virginia Beach's situation stands out because the high rate doesn't appear to have a strong connection to either the number of low birthweight babies or to the death of babies in the minority population, both factors that tend to accompany high infant mortality.
Andrea Wenger, an epidemiologist working with the city, said she hasn't seen a strong connection between the infant deaths and low birth weight. That probably means the underweight babies are getting good medical care, Dandoy said.
Many cities with high infant mortality attribute the rates to high numbers in the minority population, because of poverty and other factors, Dandoy noted. That holds true in almost every place in Virginia, including Norfolk and Portsmouth.
But in Virginia Beach, the numbers in 1994 were lower than the statewide rate for black babies and higher than the statewide rate for whites. Virginia Beach also had the lowest rates among blacks of all the cities listed in the 1995 Big Cities Health Inventory.
The situation struck Dandoy last year when she took over the Virginia Beach department. It disproves some stereotypes about the city's suburban demographics, she said.
``Virginia Beach is a big city, and we have homeless and we have poor,'' she said. ``We are not just middle-class suburbs.''
Wenger, who is on loan to Virginia Beach from Eastern Virginia Medical School, will be looking at birth and death information compiled by the state.
She'll look at a lot of factors, including the cause of death; where the mothers lived; the mothers' ethnicity, marital status and prenatal care; and whether the mothers smoked.
Wenger will investigate conditions that make Virginia Beach unique in Hampton Roads. For instance, does the seasonal employment at the resort area attract transient workers who don't have access to health care?
She'll also look at how early the deaths occurred. Infant-mortality rates include any baby who dies within its first year. A death within 28 days could be caused by a birth defect. A later death could indicate neglect or poor nutrition.
KEYWORDS: INFANT MORTALITY RATE by CNB