4 ms·

One piece of America's low average life expectancy is our high infant mortality rates. We have the highest mortality rate of any wealthy nations at 5.4 infant d

One piece of America's low average life expectancy is our high infant mortality rates. We have the highest mortality rate of any wealthy nations at 5.4 infant deaths per 1000 live births. (Compare 2-3 / 1000 in Western Europe [2]). And that rate is highly correlated to race and ethnicity, nearly double for infants born to Black parents [3]. 1: https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/08/health/child-mortality-rates-by-country-study-intl/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/08/health/child-mortality-rates-... 2: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/infant-mortality-rate-by-country https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/infant-mo... 3: https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternalinfanthealth/infantmortality.htm https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternalinfanthealth/...

giraffe_lady 3y ago
Notably dramatically reduced for minorities, like many other grim american racial/medical stats, when the doctors are also a minority. Another reason why the supreme court university decision is a direct attack on already vulnerable groups.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
tptacek 3y ago
Be a little careful here, because different countries count infant mortality differently. Mortality later in life is cut-and-dried, but infant mortality isn't some countries categorize stillbirths differently, for instance.
- olddustytrail 3y ago
  Specifically which European nations count infant mortality differently? I keep hearing this claim but I've never seen anything to back it up. And it would have to be pretty much all of them to account for the difference, right?
  - tptacek 3y ago
    Here's a paper, the first I found --- it's not about Europe, but it gives a sense of the challenge here: recoding late-prenatal and early-neonatal deaths almost 2x'd Cuba's infant mortality rate. With cites to other papers: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6681443/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6681443/
    - olddustytrail 3y ago
      Cuba is not in Europe. Cuba would in no way be considered a MED country. I don't see what the challenge is. Which European countries count infant mortality differently to the USA? You made the claim.
      - tptacek 3y ago
        I didn't say a thing about Europe, did I?
        dragonwriter 3y ago
        You presented something that is a complete non-sequitur if (as, in fact, is the case) it has nothing to do with Europe in response to a question specifically about identifying which European countries have a relevant difference from the US method of computing infant mortality.
        tptacek 3y ago
        What I think I did was write a comment that said "be a little careful" with IMR comparisons, because IMR methodologies aren't uniform. If you want to argue with someone about specific European IMR methodologies, you're going to have to find someone to write that comment. If you want to read papers about methodological issues with European IMR measurements, they're easy to find, for whatever that's worth to you. I don't much care.
        3y ago
- NelsonMinar 3y ago
  Yes, which is why I posted citations.
lkbm 3y ago
Sure, that's relevant to life expectancy, but check out figure 3 in the article: mortality for ages 20-65 is higher in the US, at any wealth level. None of those people are infants. We appear to be dying early in all walks of life, not just at birth.

giraffe_lady 3y ago

Notably dramatically reduced for minorities, like many other grim american racial/medical stats, when the doctors are also a minority. Another reason why the supreme court university decision is a direct attack on already vulnerable groups.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

tptacek 3y ago

Be a little careful here, because different countries count infant mortality differently. Mortality later in life is cut-and-dried, but infant mortality isn't some countries categorize stillbirths differently, for instance.

olddustytrail 3y ago
Specifically which European nations count infant mortality differently? I keep hearing this claim but I've never seen anything to back it up. And it would have to be pretty much all of them to account for the difference, right?
- tptacek 3y ago
  Here's a paper, the first I found --- it's not about Europe, but it gives a sense of the challenge here: recoding late-prenatal and early-neonatal deaths almost 2x'd Cuba's infant mortality rate. With cites to other papers: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6681443/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6681443/
  - olddustytrail 3y ago
    Cuba is not in Europe. Cuba would in no way be considered a MED country. I don't see what the challenge is. Which European countries count infant mortality differently to the USA? You made the claim.
    - tptacek 3y ago
      I didn't say a thing about Europe, did I?
      - dragonwriter 3y ago
        You presented something that is a complete non-sequitur if (as, in fact, is the case) it has nothing to do with Europe in response to a question specifically about identifying which European countries have a relevant difference from the US method of computing infant mortality.
        tptacek 3y ago
        What I think I did was write a comment that said "be a little careful" with IMR comparisons, because IMR methodologies aren't uniform. If you want to argue with someone about specific European IMR methodologies, you're going to have to find someone to write that comment. If you want to read papers about methodological issues with European IMR measurements, they're easy to find, for whatever that's worth to you. I don't much care.
        3y ago
NelsonMinar 3y ago
Yes, which is why I posted citations.

lkbm 3y ago

Sure, that's relevant to life expectancy, but check out figure 3 in the article: mortality for ages 20-65 is higher in the US, at any wealth level. None of those people are infants. We appear to be dying early in all walks of life, not just at birth.