U.S. Ranked 30th in Infant Mortality
| People living in the United States like to think we have the best healthcare system in the world. But when you compare infant death rates with 30 other developed countries, the U.S. comes in last, even behind countries such as Cuba, Hungry, and Poland. We spend the greatest portion of the healthcare dollar on the last 6 months of a person's life, and leave thousands of young mothers and children without adequate healthcare.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests that the primary reason we have a higher infant mortality rate is due to the high occurrence of premature babies born in the U.S. One in 8 babies in the U.S. is born preterm. This compares to only 1 in 18 in countries like Ireland and Finland. Higher rates of premature births are linked to such risks as:
- Teenage pregnancies and unwed mothers.
- Poor population groups.
- Immigrant groups.
- Persons using high levels of tobacco, alcohol, and drugs.
- Poor nutrition and underweight mothers.
- Lack of adequate prenatal care.
Any way you look at it, it is an important health issue that can be improved if it is given higher priority and the nation as a whole works toward better healthcare for disadvantaged persons and improved social conditions in our country.
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The countries with the lowest infant mortality rates were Singapore, Sweden, Hong Kong, Japan, Finland, and Norway (infant death rates between 2.1 to 3.1/1,000 live births compared to 6.9 for the U.S.).
Resource:
NCHS Data Brief No. 23. November, 2009.
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