Perinatal mortality rates remain unchanged from 2014 to 2016

(HealthDay)—Rates of perinatal mortality remained unchanged from 2014 to 2016, according to an August data brief published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.

Elizabeth C.W. Gregory, M.P.H., from the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Md., and colleagues used data from the National Vital Statistics System to assess trends in perinatal mortality. Perinatal mortality was defined as late fetal death at 28 weeks or more plus early neonatal death under age 7 days.

The researchers found that the U.S. perinatal mortality rate was essentially unchanged from 2014 through 2016, holding steady at 6.0 perinatal deaths per 1,000 births and late fetal deaths. Perinatal mortality rates were unchanged over the study period across maternal age groups over age 20 years and across 47 states and the District of Columbia. While the rate of perinatal mortality remained steady by race (non-Hispanic black, non-Hispanic white, and Hispanic women), the rate for non-Hispanic black women was about twice as high as the rates for both non-Hispanic white and Hispanic women for all three years.

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