Full-term infant mortality: United States versus Europe

The full-term infant mortality rate (FTIMR) for the United States in 2010-2012 was nearly twice as high as the median rate for that of six European countries, according to Neha Bairoliya, PhD, and Günther Fink, PhD.

The United States had an FTIMR of 2.19 per 1,000 full-term live births for that 3-year period, compared with a median of 1.11 for Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland, said Dr. Bairoliya of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Cambridge, Mass., and Dr. Fink of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland.

A classification system for individual states that rated FTIMR scores from poor (greater than or equal to 2.75) to excellent (greater than 1.25) put Connecticut, with a U.S.–low rate of 1.29 per 1,000 births, in the good (greater than or equal to1.25 to 1.75) category, so no state managed to join the excellent group of European countries, whose highest rate was 1.24, they reported in PLOS Medicine.

Missouri’s FTIMR of 3.77 per 1,000 was the highest among the 50 states. Along with Missouri, 12 other states were classified as poor, while 11 were considered fair (less than or equal to 2.25 to less than 2.75), 16 were average (less than or equal to 1.25 to less than 1.75), and 10 states earned a classification of good, the investigators said.