COLUMBUS — Health officials say the number of infant deaths in Ohio decreased overall from 2017 to 2018, including a substantial drop in deaths among black infants.
But the Department of Health says deaths of black infants continue to disproportionately outpace those of white babies and Franklin County’s rate is the lowest in three years.
“While there are indications of promising progress, there is much more that we must do to help more Ohio babies reach their first birthdays, particularly African-American infants given that the black infant mortality rate hasn’t changed significantly since 2009,” Gov. Mike DeWine said.
The state recorded 938 deaths of babies before their first birthdays in 2018, down from 982 the previous year.
The overall infant mortality rate dropped to 6.9 in 2018 from 7.2 the year before, and to 13.9 for black babies compared to 15.6 in 2017.
In Franklin County, the infant mortality rate of 7.6 for every 1,000 live births was down from 8.2 in 2017.
The infant mortality rate among African-Americans in Franklin County declined from 14.4 percent to 12 percent, still higher than the 5.1 percent among white residents.
The national infant mortality rate is 5.8.
Infant deaths due to conditions related to prematurity, such as pre-term birth, respiratory distress, and low birth weight, declined but still accounted for 29 percent of the deaths.
“Although there were fewer prematurity-related infant deaths in 2018, prematurity-related conditions remained the leading cause of infant death in Ohio,” said health director Dr. Amy Acton.
Birth defects accounted for 21 percent of the deaths, the second-leading cause, and the number of babies who died as a result of external injury increased significantly from 2016 to 2018, with 0.5 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 2016 to 0.7 in 2018, according to the department’s report.