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Marked declines in infant mortality have occurred in all U.S. socioeconomic groups from 1969 through 2001. However, socioeconomic disparities in infant mortality have climbed significantly during this period. To analyze the trends in these discrepancies by degree of deprivation, investigators derived infant mortality rates from county vital records (from 1969 through 2001) and correlated them by quintile to a factor-based deprivation index and to maternal education levels (computed for 1986, 1991, 1996, and 2001).
From 1985 through 1989, infants in the most deprived group had a 36% higher risk for neonatal mortality and a 57% higher risk for postneonatal infant mortality compared with the least deprived group. From 1995 through 2000, these d…