Race/Ethnic differences and age-variation in the effects of birth outcomes on infant mortality in the U.S.

This paper investigates the effects of birth outcomes on infant mortality for non-Hispanic white, black, and Mexican-American females in the U.S. (1995-1998). Proportional hazard models with age-varying effects of continuous birth outcome measures reveal larger birth outcome effects on neonatal mortality, smaller effects on postneonatal mortality, and moderate age-variation within the neonatal period. Unlike static models, age-varying effect models of early and late gestational age and small birth weight statistically adjust for the black neonatal mortality disadvantage relative to whites.