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Infant mortality rose for the second year in a row in 2022, up 3 percent from the previous year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The report published in the CDC's National Vital Statistics Report, detailed that the five leading causes of infant mortality remained the same as in 2021, including infant deaths due to maternal complications, which increased by 9 percent.
This increase, he said, is related to insufficient care in many states.
According to these data, infant and maternal mortality rates in the US far exceed those of other high-income countries.
The text details that, in 2022, 20,577 infant deaths were recorded in the United States, an increase of 3 percent compared to 2021 (19,928), while the infant mortality rate was 5.61 deaths per thousand live births in 2022, an increase of 3 percent from the 2021 rate of 5.44.
It also states that the neonatal mortality rate for 2022 (deaths of infants less than 28 days old) was 3.59, 3 percent higher than in 2021 (3.49), while the postneonatal mortality rate for 2022 (infant deaths at 28 days or more) increased 4 percent to 2.02 from 1.95 in 2021.
It does not affect everyone equally
The data show that this type of death does not affect everyone equally, and it is the colored races that have the most worrying numbers.
In 2022, infant mortality continued to vary by race: infants of Black women had the highest mortality rate (10.90), followed by infants of American Indian/Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander women (9.06 and 8.50, respectively), Hispanic (4.89), White (4.52), and Asian (3.51).
The mortality rate for infants of American Indian and Alaska Native women increased from 7.46 infant deaths per thousand births to 9.06 from 2021 to 2022, while the rate for infants of white women increased from 4.36 to 4.52.
However, the increases in the birth rates for babies born to African-descendant women increased from 10.55 to 10.90; for Hispanic women, from 4.79 to 4.89; and for Native Hawaiians or other Pacific Islanders, from 7.76 to 8.50, a case that the text marks as "not significant."
It is worth noting that there was a decrease in the mortality rate of babies born to Asian women, from 3.69 to 3.51.
Among Hispanic subgroups, the mortality rate for babies born to Dominican women increased from 3.27 to 4.74 from 2021 to 2022; for Central and South American women, it rose from 4.20 to 4.36; for Cuban women, from 3.56 to 3.94; and for Puerto Rican women, from 6.05 to 6.32.
On the other hand, the infant mortality rate for Mexican women decreased from 4.91 to 4.79) from 2021 to 2022.
Babies of African-American women also had the highest neonatal mortality rate in 2022 (6.44) compared to babies of other racial and Hispanic origin groups; the lowest mortality rate was for babies of Asian women (2.47).
Similarly, the text highlights that, in 2022, postneonatal mortality rates were higher for babies of African-descendant women (4.45), American Indian and Alaska Native women (3.81), and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander women (3.75) than for babies of white women (1.63), Hispanic women (1.54), and Asian women (1.03).
The five leading causes of all infant deaths were the same as in 2021: congenital malformations (19.5 percent of infant deaths), disorders related to short gestation and low birth weight (14.0 percent), sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) (7.4 percent), unintentional injuries (6.6 percent) and maternal complications (5.9 percent).
The state with the lowest infant mortality, with a minimum of 3.32 infant deaths per thousand births, was Massachusetts, while the maximum of 9.11 was Mississippi.
Twelve states had infant mortality rates significantly lower than the national infant mortality rate: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington.
Meanwhile, 19 states had infant mortality rates significantly higher than the national average: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio.
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