IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aph/ajpbhl/10.2105-ajph.2005.068387_0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Disparities in infant mortality: What's genetics got to do with it?

Author

Listed:
  • David, R.
  • Collins Jr., J.

Abstract

Since 1950, dramatic advances in human genetics have occurred, racial disparities in infant mortality have widened, and the United States' international ranking in infant mortality has deteriorated. The quest for a "preterm birth gene" to explain racial differences is now under way. Scores of papers linking polymorphisms to preterm birth have appeared in the past few years. Is this strategy likely to reduce racial disparities? We reviewed broad epidemiological patterns that call this approach into question. Overall patterns of racial disparities in mortality and secular changes in rates of prematurity as well as birthweight patterns in infants of African immigrant populations contradict the genetic theory of race and point toward social mechanisms. We postulate that a causal link to class disparities in health exists.

Suggested Citation

  • David, R. & Collins Jr., J., 2007. "Disparities in infant mortality: What's genetics got to do with it?," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 97(7), pages 1191-1197.
    • Handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2005.068387_0
    DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2005.068387
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2005.068387
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2105/AJPH.2005.068387?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Benjamin Sosnaud, 2022. "Reconceptualizing Measures of Black–White Disparity in Infant Mortality in U.S. Counties," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(4), pages 1779-1808, August.
    2. Rosenthal, Lisa & Lobel, Marci, 2011. "Explaining racial disparities in adverse birth outcomes: Unique sources of stress for Black American women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(6), pages 977-983, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2005.068387_0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Christopher F Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.apha.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.