Beginning of the end...

This week, we were asked to start thinking about our final paper. The assignment is to choose a public health issue and write a term paper which assesses the problem and designs an intervention. I will be writing about infant mortality rates among the urban African-American population in Baltimore. In Maryland, the total infant mortality rate is about 7.4 deaths per 1000 live births. However, the infant mortality rate for African Americans is almost twice that (13.1 deaths per 1000 live births). Within Baltimore City, the disparity is even more severe. African American infants are almost three times as likely to die as white infants.

One of the goals of public health is to diminish health disparities. It is unjust that within Baltimore City, the African American community faces an infant mortality rate similar to many developing nations. Infant mortality rates are a very important indicator of overall health and if the health system is failing to provide adequate pre and post natal services, the health of the entire community suffers. There are many programs within Baltimore that seek to address this problem but so far there has not been much significant improvement. I think that this will be an interesting topic to examine deeper due to the complex factors that cause the disparity. It is also socially relevant since, as our country begins to implement health reform and works to improve overall population health, it will become extremely important to improve the health of underserved population groups. Until these disparities are addressed, it will be impossible for the overall health of the population to improve significantly.