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February 13, 2006
February 13, 2006
The number of infant deaths in Michigan for 2004 were the lowest level on record, state officials said today.
Michigan Department of Community Health Director Janet Olszewski said that 128 fewer infants died in Michigan in 2004 than in 2003. The number of infant deaths declined from 1,112 in 2003 to 984 in 2004.
“After many years of collaborative efforts to decrease infant mortality, Michigan recorded in 2004 its lowest rate ever of 7.6 per 1,000 live births, a testament to the hard work going on at both the state and local levels,” Olszewski said.
Although the overall news is encouraging, Olszewski emphasized that it must be examined more closely, especially the disparities between deaths of African American and white infants.
Data also reveals that while the white infant mortality rate decreased from 6.7 per 1,000 live births in 2003 to 5.2 per 1,000 live births in 2004, the African American infant mortality rate only decreased from 17.5 per 1,000 live births in 2003 to 17.3 per 1,000 live births in 2004.
“We are making progress at reducing our rate of infant death in the African American community, but certainly, more work needs to be done to combat disparities,” Olszewski said. “I am hopeful and confident that we can seriously address this critical issue through our many efforts designed to address improving birth outcomes, particularly for African American families.”
Michigan’s infant mortality rate for 2004 was 7.6 per 1,000 live births, compared to 8.5 per 1,000 live births in 2003. The infant mortality rate is the number of deaths of infants under one year of age per 1,000 live births, and is a worldwide standard used to measure health status.
An important state initiative designed to improve African American infant mortality is focused on the communities in Michigan with the highest infant mortality rates.
MDCH is providing funding to support community coalitions that bring together key stakeholders in each of these communities who work together to develop a community-based plan for improving African American birth outcomes.
These coalitions are beginning to leverage other resources and private funding as part of their work to expand the implementation impact of their activities. African American women in each community are a critical part of the input and evaluation process.
MDCH provides technical support to each community, as well as to the networking of each of these coalitions to each other so that shared ideas and problem solving occurs effectively. This activity is intended as a multi-year project, and communities are already very pleased with what is occurring.
Other activities underway through MDCH to reduce infant mortality rates include:
• Information collected from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring system, which interviews mothers of live infants about their prenatal and postnatal behaviors, is being analyzed to look at changes in the past 10 years.
• Fetal Infant Mortality Review teams are organized in communities with the highest infant mortality rates. These review teams are panels of experts that review each individual fetal and infant death, to determine possible causes and to determine if the death was in any way preventable or if changes in behavior, environment, medical practice or procedure could have influenced the outcome.
• Partnerships are in place with Medicaid Health Plans and Local Health Departments to ensure that potentially at-risk pregnant women are screened for enrollment into the newly redesigned Maternal and Infant Health Program which provides targeted evidence-based interventions, support and care coordination relative to identified areas of risk.
• Implementation of the Nurse Family Partnership program, a proven program relative to improving birth outcomes, in four of the highest African American infant mortality rated communities in Michigan.
• Many programs, educational activities, and resources are in place for addressing specific health issues that adversely affect birth outcomes (such as smoking, diabetes, asthma and other chronic diseases).
• Testing and follow-up for women with STD/HIV is available, particularly for women who are pregnant.
Additional infant mortality data for Michigan with more detailed information, including birth weight, maternal age, prenatal care adequacy, smoking, and data for specific local health department districts, counties, and major cities and townships, can be found on the MDCH web site at www.michigan.gov/mdch. Click on “Health Statistics” and then “Infant Mortality.”