Citation

Cramer JC. Soc. Sci. Res. 1988; 17(2): 164-189.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1988, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0049-089X(88)90004-X

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Several researchers and advocacy groups have suggested that the black-white difference in level of infant mortality in the United States gradually diminished from the mid-1960s to about 1980, but that the racial trends stopped converging in 1982 and possibly started diverging, due to recession and federal budget cuts. This paper examines racial and ethnic trends in infant mortality in California from 1966 to 1982, using log-linear analysis to control for changes in composition and trends associated with other variables correlated with race, such as maternal age and marital status. Trends in infant mortality among Hispanics and white anglos are quite similar in California. The percentage decline in infant mortality from 1966-1967 to 1979-1980 was less for blacks than for whites, so in relative terms the racial trends diverged slightly. The racial divergence was most notable in the neonatal period and among low-birthweight babies. In a close examination of recent years (1978-1982), no significant racial differences in trends in infant mortality, nor any changes in trends, were detected.