RACIAL DIFFERENTIALS IN INFANT-MORTALITY IN THE UNITED-STATES - AN EXAMINATION OF SOCIAL AND HEALTH DETERMINANTS

This article examines the association between race and infant mortalit y in the U.S. Beginning with a sociological conceptualization of race, a framework is developed that delineates sociodemographic and proxima te factors thought to be instrumental in the association between infan t mortality and race. Recently available nationally representative dat a are used to examine this association. Descriptive analysis illustrat es that the racial gap in infant mortality is nearly identical for end ogenous and exogenous causes of death, with the overall rate of infant mortality among African Americans about 2.2 times higher than that fo r non-Hispanic white Americans. Logistic regression analysis confirms that each set of variables is instrumental in explaining the racial mo rtality gap, with sociodemographic factors more relevant for differenc es in exogenous causes and maternal health and health care factor's mo re relevant to the gap in endogenous causes.