Ra. Hummer, RACIAL DIFFERENTIALS IN INFANT-MORTALITY IN THE UNITED-STATES - AN EXAMINATION OF SOCIAL AND HEALTH DETERMINANTS, Social forces, 72(2), 1993, pp. 529-554
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.