title: Urban poverty and infant-health disparities among African Americans and whites in Milwaukee.
abstract: This study examined neighborhood and infant health disparities between African-American and white mothers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Census-block data were used for 1990 and Vital Statistics data were used for 1992 through 1994. African-American mothers lived in less desirable, more segregated neighborhoods than white mothers did in 1990. African-American infant and neonatal mortality rates were twice those of whites (2.3 and 2.0, respectively), while African-American postneonatal mortality rates were three times that of whites (3.0). African-American low and very low birth weight rates were more than twice those of whites (2.5 and 2.6, respectively). All African-American mothers were nearly eight times as likely as all white mothers to have inadequate prenatal care, whereas poor African-American mothers were three times as likely to have inadequate prenatal care as were poor white mothers. Public health experts and practitioners may want to consider the communities of minority patients to devise interventions suitable for addressing health disparities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison 53715, USA.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sims
authors.forename: Yolanda
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Rainge
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D044383:Black People; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D011203:Poverty; D011295:Prenatal Care; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012307:Risk Factors; D014505:Urban Population; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014922:Wisconsin / Q000453:epidemiology