U.S. lags other rich nations in infant mortality

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Infant mortality in the United States remains higher than in many other industrialized countries, with progress stalling this decade, the U.S. government said on Wednesday.

The United States ranked 29th lowest in the world in infant mortality in 2004, the latest year for which comparative global figures were available, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report.

This extends a worsening trend for the United States in global infant mortality rankings. The 2004 ranking compares to 27th in 2000, 23rd in 1990 and 12th in 1960, the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics said.

"Infant mortality is one of the most important indicators of the health of a nation, as it is associated with a variety of factors such as maternal health, quality and access to medical care, socioeconomic conditions and public health practices," the report said.

The latest CDC statistics on U.S. infant mortality -- defined as death within a year of birth -- showed that there were 6.71 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2006, a slight decline from 2005.

Singapore, with a reported rate of 2.0 deaths per 1,000 live births, was best in the world, followed by Hong Kong, Japan, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Spain, the Czech Republic, France and Portugal, the CDC's Marian MacDorman said.

The rankings are based on the 2004 U.S. rate of 6.78 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, which puts the United States in a tie with Poland and Slovakia, MacDorman said.

The report noted that the U.S. infant mortality rate generally improved throughout the 20th century, but progress stalled from 2000 to 2005.

These years represent the first period of sustained lack of progress in the U.S. infant mortality rate since the 1950s, the CDC said.

"This is really the first time that the U.S. infant mortality rate hasn't declined in a century. So we're quite concerned about this plateau," MacDorman said in a telephone interview.

Racial disparities in the United States remain stark. The infant mortality rate for babies of black women was 2.4 times the rate for white women.

A rise in premature births accounted for much of the lack of decline in the U.S. infant mortality rate from 2000 to 2005, the CDC said.