Kansas infant mortality drops

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment, known as KDHE, recently released data stating that the infant mortality rate in Kansas dropped in 2008.

The infant mortality rate in 2008 was 7.2 deaths per 1,000 live births compared to 1.9 deaths per 1,000 in 2007. The number of infant deaths in Kansas was 303 in 2008, that is 30 fewer than in 2007.

“Infant mortality is seen as a critical measurement of the health of a population,” said Jason Eberhart-Phillips, MD, MPH, state health officer and director of health at KDHE. “While last year’s rate is an improvement, it remains unsatisfactorily high when compared to rates in many countries around the world.”

Eberhart-Phillips added that the rate among some Kansas populations is disproportionately higher than others. The infant mortality rate for non-Hispanic blacks was almost 13.3 per 1,000 live births in 2008. The rate for women of Hispanic origin was 8.4 per 1,000.

The Governor’s Child Health Advisory Committee created a Blue Ribbon Panel on infant mortality to examine this issue and propose evidence-based solutions.

“Clearly more needs to be done to reduce infant mortality, and this panel of experts has its work cut out for it to find solutions quickly,” Eberhart-Phillips said.

KDHE’s Division of Health monitors infant mortality, supports programs that promote access to health services for mothers and infants and calculates the infant mortality rate in preparation of the Annual Summary of Vital Statistics.

More information about Kansas infant mortality can be found at www.datacounts.net/chac/.

Trackback(0)

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Write comment