Ethnic disparities in infant mortality in Hampton Roads

Background: Hampton Roads is a regional socio-economic unit made up of 14 cities/counties in the southeastern part of the state of Virginia. This region's infant mortality rate (IMR) was 9.7 per 1000 live births in 2007, and is the highest in the state. The IMR for Non-Hispanic whites was 7.0 per 1000 live births and 15.4 per 1000 live births for Non-Hispanic blacks in 2007. Method: Linked birth/infant death data set from 1998 to 2007 will be retrieved from the Vital Statistics Division of the Virginia Health Department. The study population consists of live born singleton non-Hispanic whites and blacks born between 1998 and 2007, and who either survived or died within the first 364 days of life. Analysis: Statistical analysis will be done using the SAS software. Exact statistics will be used to compare the distribution of risk factors and cause of death by ethnicity. Logistic regression will be used to compute the odds ratios (OR) at 95% confidence intervals (CI) and estimate the relationship between maternal ethnicity, the identified risk factors, and infant mortality. Causes of infant mortality will be measured using ICD-10. Results: Results will be outputted in tabular form and graphs. Results will consist of a description of the general characteristics of the study population as well as the association between the risk factors studied and infant mortality by ethnicity. Conclusion: Based on the results of our analysis, we will suggest recommendations to reduce the high infant mortality rate and also bridge the ethnic disparity.