The overall infant mortality rate in Wisconsin has declined slowly over the past two decades, but our state continues to have an alarmingly high infant mortality rate among African-Americans. Although the infant mortality rate for African-Americans has dropped significantly in Wisconsin since the early 2000s, it is nearly double the state’s overall average and almost triple that of the state’s White population. Here are a few key facts from the recently released DHS report on Wisconsin Births and Infant Deaths in 2012:

• African American infants accounted for 21% of the infant death in Wisconsin in 2012, but only 9% of the 67,229 births were among Black families.
• Wisconsin’s black infant mortality rate declined in 2012 to 13.2 (deaths per 1,000 births to black/African American women), compared to 13.7 in the previous year and 18.3 in 2002.
• The “disparity ratio” between the black infant mortality rate and the white rate peaked at 3.4 about 10 years ago, but it has increased over the longer term – from 2.3 in 1990-1992 to 2.7 in 2010-2012.  (The disparity ratio is the black infant mortality rate divided by the white rate.)
• The Hispanic/Latino infant mortality rate for 2012 was 4.6 (deaths per 1,000 births to Hispanic/Latino women) compared to 6.3 in 2011 and 6.2 in 2002.

An article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last week reports on disturbing local trends in infant death rates:

“Troubling increases in the rate at which babies continue to die in Milwaukee before their first birthday, and especially the rate at which African-American babies die, are moving the city further away from goals it set in 2011, according to new data the city will release Tuesday.”

That article does a nice job of explaining the role of chronic stress in contributing to poor health outcomes, including infant deaths.   Another good Journal Sentinel article, also authored by Karen Herzog, addresses the need to address the well-being of moms if we hope to reduce the high number of infant deaths in Milwaukee and elsewhere.

At the state level, the recent infant mortality trends are somewhat more encouraging than the Milwaukee statistics, but the pattern of racial disparity among infant deaths persists.  These statistics highlight the importance of tackling the root causes of the very substantial racial and ethnic disparities between white families and minorities on a wide range of health outcomes.

Jelicia Diggs