Volume 14 - Article 10 | Pages 179–216  

Race/Ethnic differences and age-variation in the effects of birth outcomes on infant mortality in the U.S.

By Daniel A. Powers, W. Parker Frisbie, Robert A. Hummer, Starling G. Pullum, Patricio Solis

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of birth outcomes on infant mortality for non-Hispanic white, black, and Mexican-American females in the U.S. (1995-1998). Proportional hazard models with age-varying effects of continuous birth outcome measures reveal larger birth outcome effects on neonatal mortality, smaller effects on postneonatal mortality, and moderate age-variation within the neonatal period. Unlike static models, age-varying effect models of early and late gestational age and small birth weight statistically adjust for the black neonatal mortality disadvantage relative to whites.

Author’s Affiliation

• Daniel A. Powers - University of Texas at Austin, United States of America EMAIL
• W. Parker Frisbie - University of Texas at Austin, United States of America EMAIL
• Robert A. Hummer - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, United States of America EMAIL
• Starling G. Pullum - University of Texas at Austin, United States of America EMAIL
• Patricio Solis - El Colegio de México, Mexico EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

Greater mortality variability in the United States in comparison with peer countries
Volume 42 - Article 36

The persistent southern disadvantage in US early life mortality, 1965‒2014
Volume 42 - Article 11

Age patterns of racial/ethnic/nativity differences in disability and physical functioning in the United States
Volume 31 - Article 17

Assimilation and emerging health disparities among new generations of U.S. children
Volume 25 - Article 25

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