title: Black-white differences in infant mortality in 38 standard metropolitan statistical areas.
abstract: The Black-White difference in infant mortality rates for 1982 through 1986 in 38 large US standard metropolitan statistical areas (SMSAs) varied by a factor of almost seven. In multiple regression analyses the most important predictor of the Black-White difference in the 38 SMSAs was an index of Black-White residential dissimilarity (or "segregation index"), independent of Black-White differences in median family income and poverty prevalence. Certain SMSAs in California had relatively low segregation indexes and small Black-White differences in infant mortality, despite considerable Black-White differences in poverty prevalence. The explanations for the apparent effect of residential segregation should be explored.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510.
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Polednak
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002391:Catchment Area, Health; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D011204:Poverty Areas; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014504:Urban Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*