Cheryl Clark, DrPH, RHIA
Associate Director, Epidemiology and Evaluation
AMCHP

A published analysis highlighted a “substantial” decrease in Years of Life Lost (YLL) or deaths due to premature mortality among the black population from between 1990 and 2014. However, despite this decline, there is a continued disparity between YLL for blacks compared to YLL for whites.¹

The figures show the overall infant mortality rates and infant mortality rates for deaths due to low birth weight/prematurity and unintentional injuries for U.S. infants between 2010 and 2014. Similarly, wide disparities in infant mortality also remain constant between black and white infants.  While we celebrate any reduction in mortality, as this figure shows, there is still much work to be done.

¹Buchanich JM, Doerfler SM, Lann MF, Marsh GM, Burke DS (2018) Improvement in racial disparities in years of life lost in the USA since1990. PLoS ONE 13(4): e0194308.