Infant mortality: a call to action overcoming health disparities in the United States.

Among all of the industrialized countries, the United States has the highest infant mortality rate. Racial and ethnic disparities continue to plague the United States with a disproportionally high rate of infant death. Furthermore, racial disparities among infant and neonatal mortality rates remain a chronic health problem in the United States. These risks are based on the geographical variations in mortality and disparities among differences in maternal risk characteristics, low birth weights, and lack of access to health care.

Infant mortality is a key indicator for the overall health of the population and for health care quality (1). Among all of the industrialized countries, the United States (2, 3) has the highest infant mortality rate (IMR) (4). Furthermore, racial and ethnic disparities continue to plague the United States with a disproportionally high IMR; for example, African American infants have more than double the IMR compared with Caucasian infants (5). These health disparities between ethnic and racial groups continue to grow (6) due to the widening gap in large declines in infant and fetal mortality among Caucasians compared to African Americans (7). This is further exacerbated by the recent findings from Emuren et al. (8), who noted that African American infants are at higher risk of dying compared to Caucasian infants.

Unfortunately, racial disparities among infant and neonatal mortality rates are a chronic health problem in the United States (9). These racial disparities vary across the states with some locations experiencing more significant problems than others (10, 11). These risks are based on the geographical variations in mortality and disparities among differences in maternal risk characteristics, low birth-weights, and lack of access to health care (10). Tyler et al. argue that these geographical variations are due to inconsistencies in reporting, such as fetal death, infant and neonatal morality rates (12) and racial disparities (13).

With this influx of infant mortality across the United States, it is imperative to incorporate health disparities, such as infant mortality and high risk pregnancies, into our medical school curriculum and for our health care professionals; thus providing them with the foundation and exposure to risk factors related to infant mortality prior to entering the health care workforce. This will assure a successful transition into health care settings; hence this is a call to action for physicians, biomedical researchers, and medical schools with the end result focused on decreasing the IMR within the United States.