Infant Mortality Rate Falls, Racial Gap Persists in Cuyahoga County

Cuyahoga County saw a decrease last year in the rate of infant deaths in the first year of life, according to preliminary numbers from the board of health. But the death rate for black babies remains higher than that for whites.

The rate of black infant deaths was 3.3 times as high as that for white babies, a small increase over the prior year.

“We have two out of every three infant deaths were to black, African-American babies,” Chris Kippes with the county health board said. “Two out of every three. Not acceptable.”

Overall, the rate of infant deaths per thousand live births fell from more than 10 in 2015 to 8.6 last year.

That was welcome news for First Year Cleveland, a public health effort formed in December 2015 to bring down the infant mortality rate. But the group can’t draw a straight line between its own initial work and the drop.

“We are optimistically cautious that we know we have less babies dying in 2016 than 2015,” First Year Cleveland executive director Bernadette Kerrigan said. “We cannot align perfectly the work we have been doing, but the work this community is doing has to continue.”

The county’s overall infant mortality rate is among the highest in Ohio. First Year aims to close the racial gap in the numbers. In the near term, it will focus on reducing sleep-related deaths.