Political culture and Black-White infant mortality in the United States

Objectives This study examines the role that largely unconsidered aspects of political culture (e.g., state's past voting record in presidential elections; past enactment of anti-miscegenation laws or a pre-clearance requirement under the Voting Rights Act of 1965) may play in the U.S. infant mortality rate, where a persistent and substantial gap exists between Black and White Americans.

Methods Data on non-Hispanic Black and White infant mortality rates (the dependent variable) for the 11-year period studied (1995 to 2005) are from the CDC. For analysis of these time series data, multivariate regression with clustering around the states was used to mitigate possible autocorrelation and reduce the possibility of Type 1 errors.

Results Individualistic state political cultures and the intensity of past anti-miscegenation laws result in worse present-day White, but not Black, infant mortality rates. The gap in Black-White infant mortality rates was narrower in states with a strong history of Democratic voting, and those that enacted (or repealed) anti-miscegenation legislation in the 19th or 20th centuries. The gap is exacerbated, however, by the intensity of past anti-miscegenation laws and the number of segregation laws present in a state circa 1950.

Conclusions Measures of political culture are surprisingly strong predictors of variation in White infant mortality. The ability of political culture variables to explain Black infant mortality may benefit from a more nuanced examination of infant mortality rates by region, or from more sensitive reformulation of these measures.