This dissertation examines the association between race and infant mortality in the United States in the most comprehensive manner to date. Beginning with a sociological conceptualization of race, a framework is developed which delineates six sets of individual-level factors thought to be instrumental in the continuing association between race and infant mortality. The specific objectives of the project are to test the ability of the framework to explain differential mortality across racial groups and to understand the effects of each set of factors on infant mortality by group. / The 1988 National Maternal and Infant Health Survey (NMIHS) is used for the analysis. The NMIHS is the most comprehensive data set ever collected to study poor pregnancy outcome in the United States. Multinomial logit regression procedures are used to most appropriately model the effects of race and other independent variables on cause-specific infant mortality. / Descriptive findings illustrate that the racial gap in infant mortality is nearly identical for endogenous and exogenous causes of death, with the overall rate of infant mortality among African-Americans about 2.2 times higher than non-Hispanic Whites. The regression analysis confirms that the racial distribution of socioeconomic, demographic, health care, maternal health, and infant health factors are all instrumental in understanding the excess mortality experienced by African-Americans. The behavioral factors examined here do not account for any of the excess mortality among African-Americans. Separate analysis by group suggests that several of the variables work in unique ways to affect infant mortality by group. Theoretical and empirical contributions of the study are highlighted. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-02, Section: A, page: 0691. / Major Professor: Isaac W. Eberstein. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76854 |
| Contributors | Hummer, Robert A., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 174 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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