The Epidemic of Despair and Infant Mortality: A Research Note

Abstract

This research note documents that progress against infant mortality in the United States has stalled in the twenty-first century among infants born to White non-Hispanic women without a bachelor’s degree. In contrast, the mortality rate fell con-sid erably among infants born to White non-Hispanic women with a bachelor’s degree, Black non-His panic women across levels of edu ca tion, and His panic women with a bachelor’s degree. The decline in infant mor tality for His panic women with out a bachelor’s degree was small, but still greater than the decline for White non-Hispanic women without a bachelor’s after adjusting for changes in the distribution of maternal age within groups. I also document a marked difference in trends for sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) rates by mater nal edu ca tion. The SUID rate increased among those born to women with out a bach e lor’s degree across racial and eth nic groups, while declining or staying constant for those born to women with a bachelor’s degree. The lack of progress against infant mortality for White non-Hispanic women without a bachelor’s degree was driven by a relatively large increase in SUID rates, coupled with relatively slow progress against other types of infant mortality.