What if the Black Infant Mortality Rate Really Does Show the Well-being of Kalamazoo County's Black Community?
Yesterday the banner headline on the front page of the Kalamazoo Gazette was BLACK INFANT-MORTALITY RATE RISING.
(http://www.mlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-19/1158765764155540.xml?kzgazette?NEKP&coll=7)
Dr. Arthur James, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Borgess Women's Health, presented the most recent statistics on infant mortality in Kalamazoo County to the Kalamazoo Academy of Medicine in a meeting at the Family Health Center on Kalamazoo's northside.
The infant mortality rate for black children in Kalamazoo was 20.8 deaths per 1,000 live births in the most recent study (2004). The rate for white children in Kalamazoo was similar to the national rate for white infants -- 5.65 deaths per thousand. What a difference your race makes.
The national rate for black infants, 13.65 deaths per thousand, is more than double the rate for white infants nationally. But Kalamazoo County's black infant mortality rate is much worse -- more than three times the national rate for white infants.
There's more. The State of Michigan was the second worst in the nation and Kalamazoo County was the second worst in the state (only Flint's Genesee County was worse). That puts us way down deep in the bottom of the barrel.
I wondered how these infant mortality rates compare to other countries around the world.
It turns out the CIA's World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html)
publishes a list of nations ranked by their infant mortality rates. I was shocked to learn that the mortality rate for black infants in Kalamazoo County just beats out the Gaza Strip where poverty is so intense that the GDP per person there is only $600. The US has a lot more money to work with. The GDP per person in the U.S. is over $41,000.
Black infants in Kalamazoo County would have a better chance of surviving if they were born in Albania, Columbia, Mexico, the West Bank, Malaysia, Jordan, Jamaica, Russia, Sri Lanka, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Hungary, Estonia, Poland or Croatia -- to name a few.
In fact, the black infant mortality rate here is double the rates in Puerto Rico and Costa Rica.
The overall infant mortality rate in the U.S. is higher than the rate in Cuba. Again, its not because the United States is poorer than Cuba. Per capita GDP in Cuba is $3,500 according to the CIA, while US per capita GDP is almost 12 times that ($41,800)!
Cuba is not the only country where children have a better chance of surviving than in the United States. The CIA lists 38 countries with better rates, including South Korea, Italy, Ireland, the European Union, Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain, France, and the Czech Republic.
According to the CIA, the infant mortality rate in the Czech Republic (3.89 deaths per thousand live births) is more than 5 times better than the rate for Kalamazoo County's African American infants.
But all this is not just about babies and mothers and pregnancy. Dr James said "The infant-mortality rate is a quality-of-life indicator. Our poor folks in this community are struggling, and struggling more than we recognize."
These infant mortality statistics provide one more window onto ugly realities in our community. While we live in one of the richest nations in the world, the black infant mortality rate in Kalamazoo County ranks with some of the poorest nations of the world. More wealth won't change that. We are plenty wealthy enough as a society. What is required is a change in how we use our wealth.
With a black infant mortality rate worse than the West Bank and just a fraction better than the Gaza Strip, our community leaders have one more reason to finally make real, genuine, concrete changes to improve the lives of the poor people in our community. That ought to be their top priority.
(http://www.mlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-19/1158765764155540.xml?kzgazette?NEKP&coll=7)
Dr. Arthur James, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Borgess Women's Health, presented the most recent statistics on infant mortality in Kalamazoo County to the Kalamazoo Academy of Medicine in a meeting at the Family Health Center on Kalamazoo's northside.
The infant mortality rate for black children in Kalamazoo was 20.8 deaths per 1,000 live births in the most recent study (2004). The rate for white children in Kalamazoo was similar to the national rate for white infants -- 5.65 deaths per thousand. What a difference your race makes.
The national rate for black infants, 13.65 deaths per thousand, is more than double the rate for white infants nationally. But Kalamazoo County's black infant mortality rate is much worse -- more than three times the national rate for white infants.
There's more. The State of Michigan was the second worst in the nation and Kalamazoo County was the second worst in the state (only Flint's Genesee County was worse). That puts us way down deep in the bottom of the barrel.
I wondered how these infant mortality rates compare to other countries around the world.
It turns out the CIA's World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html)
publishes a list of nations ranked by their infant mortality rates. I was shocked to learn that the mortality rate for black infants in Kalamazoo County just beats out the Gaza Strip where poverty is so intense that the GDP per person there is only $600. The US has a lot more money to work with. The GDP per person in the U.S. is over $41,000.
Black infants in Kalamazoo County would have a better chance of surviving if they were born in Albania, Columbia, Mexico, the West Bank, Malaysia, Jordan, Jamaica, Russia, Sri Lanka, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Hungary, Estonia, Poland or Croatia -- to name a few.
In fact, the black infant mortality rate here is double the rates in Puerto Rico and Costa Rica.
The overall infant mortality rate in the U.S. is higher than the rate in Cuba. Again, its not because the United States is poorer than Cuba. Per capita GDP in Cuba is $3,500 according to the CIA, while US per capita GDP is almost 12 times that ($41,800)!
Cuba is not the only country where children have a better chance of surviving than in the United States. The CIA lists 38 countries with better rates, including South Korea, Italy, Ireland, the European Union, Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain, France, and the Czech Republic.
According to the CIA, the infant mortality rate in the Czech Republic (3.89 deaths per thousand live births) is more than 5 times better than the rate for Kalamazoo County's African American infants.
But all this is not just about babies and mothers and pregnancy. Dr James said "The infant-mortality rate is a quality-of-life indicator. Our poor folks in this community are struggling, and struggling more than we recognize."
These infant mortality statistics provide one more window onto ugly realities in our community. While we live in one of the richest nations in the world, the black infant mortality rate in Kalamazoo County ranks with some of the poorest nations of the world. More wealth won't change that. We are plenty wealthy enough as a society. What is required is a change in how we use our wealth.
With a black infant mortality rate worse than the West Bank and just a fraction better than the Gaza Strip, our community leaders have one more reason to finally make real, genuine, concrete changes to improve the lives of the poor people in our community. That ought to be their top priority.
posted by Rick Stravers at 8:38 PM
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