By JoAnne Viviano, The Columbus Dispatch, staff and wire reports
COLUMBUS — Already among the worst in the nation, Ohio’s infant mortality rate increased last year, with black babies dying at a rate approaching three times that of whites.
Data released Wednesday by the Ohio Department of Health shows the state’s overall infant mortality rate increased to 7.2 deaths per 1,000 births last year. That’s up from a rate of 6.8 deaths in 2014, a 75-year low.
Central Ohio, however, is seeing some early success under a five-year plan aimed at drastically reducing the number of babies who die before turning one.
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The report shows that 7.6 babies per every 1,000 births died in Franklin County last year, compared with 8.4 babies of every 1,000 births in 2014.
The numbers were met cautiously by Liane Egle, director of CelebrateOne, formed in 2014 to reduce infant mortality in the Columbus area.
“Any dip in numbers is encouraging,” Egle said. “But while we did see a slight decrease in 2015, we recognize that we need to be focused on our five-year plan and redouble our efforts.
“We’re not far enough along to begin celebrating.”
CelebrateOne’s five-year plan seeks to reduce the infant-mortality rate by 40 percent by 2020 and to cut in half the disparity among babies of different races.
Among initiatives is one to increase safe sleep practices and one to help pregnant women receive early prenatal care. Egle said another focus is to work to find solutions and train community-health workers in eight neighborhoods found to be the hardest hit by infant deaths.
“There has been a lot of effort to make sure we address real causes and getting to the neighborhoods that have the biggest issues,” said Franklin County Health Commissioner Susan A. Tilgner. “There’s a coordinated response to make sure we really address this issue, and I think that’s what it takes.”
The three leading causes continued to be prematurity, sleep-related deaths and birth defects.
Ohio had 1,005 infants die before their first birthdays in 2015, compared with 955 in 2014.
State health officials say Ohio’s rate has been trending downward since at least 1990 and the latest figures don’t reflect recent local initiatives funded in part by nearly $41.3 million the state has spent over the past five years to address the problem, said ODH Director Rick Hodges.
“Infant mortality in Ohio is trending downward over time, and Ohio’s infant mortality rates improved faster than the national rates during the past five years. Still, these numbers show that we still have a lot of work to do to save babies lives, especially African-American babies,” Hodges said.
The data prompted state Sen. Charleta Tavares (D-Columbus) to renew her call on lawmakers to pass a comprehensive infant mortality bill co-sponsored with Sen Shannon Jones (R-Springboro).
“The report points to a disturbing trend for all babies but especially for African American babies,” Tavares said.
The bill bans the sale of crib bumpers, provides annual safe sleep education to parents and infant caregivers, long-acting reversible contraception to provide safe birth spacing and calls for better tracking of data so that success or failure can be measured, especially in minority communities.