Published 9 November 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4633
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4633

News

Relatively high infant mortality in US is due to number of preterm births, report says

Janice Hopkins Tanne

1 New York

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The United States ranks 30th in the world in terms of infant mortality, behind most European countries and Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and Israel, says a report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db23.htm).

Singapore had the world’s lowest infant mortality rate, at 2.1 deaths per 1000 live births, show the data, from 2004 and 2005.

The US has slipped over the past half century. The report says, "The United States’ international ranking in infant mortality fell from 12th in the world in 1960, to 23rd in 1990, to 29th in 2004, and 30th in 2005.

"In 2005, 22 countries had infant mortality rates of 5.0 infant deaths per 1000 live births or lower. The lowest infant mortality rates (3.0 or lower) were found in selected Scandinavian (Sweden and Finland) and East Asian (Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore) countries. The rate . . . [Full text of this article]


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