An infant mortality report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) underscores the need for cities to define and execute data-driven strategies to eliminate racial and ethnic differences in infant mortality.
“Every city must be ready and able to translate its data into action to safeguard the health and well-being of its youngest residents,” said Magda Peck, Sc.D., one of the report’s co-authors and chief executive officer/executive director of CityMatCH, a national public health organization based at UNMC. “That is what CityMatCH is all about.”
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The CityMatCH mission is to improve the health and well-being of urban women, children and families by strengthening the public health organizations and leaders in their communities. UNMC serves as its fiscal agent. CityMatCH is dedicated to building the capacity of urban communities to improve the health of their women, children and families. CityMatCH works with its nearly 150 member local health departments, which serve the nation’s 200 largest cities to help them use data effectively to shape local solutions. |
The report, titled “Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Infant Mortality Rates – 60 Largest U.S. Cities,” was released in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). It illustrates how differences in populations and communities account for wide variations among U.S. cities in infant death rates overall, and specifically among urban white, black and Hispanic children.
The report’s data shouldn’t be used only to compare cities, Dr. Peck said, but also should be used as a starting point for each city to take stock of its infant mortality problem. CityMatCH (the capital M and CH stand for Maternal and Child Health) can provide tools and training to assist cities to help improve this issue. Already, many of the 60 cities cited in this report have used CityMatCH training, including the Perinatal Periods of Risk (PPOR) and the Urban MCH Data Use Institute, to strengthen their capacity to address urban problems such as infant mortality.
“Each city has its own set of problems and gaps that it needs to overcome in order to effectively address maternal and child health issues,” Dr. Peck said. “We are helping cities find solutions to this very difficult problem.”
The PPOR approach helps target resources for proven prevention activities and mobilizes the community to action. A 14-city National Practice Collaborative is developing “best practices” for using this new approach in other cities. The CityMatCH-CDC Urban MCH Data Use Institute trains community leadership teams to use data effectively to improve the health of women, children and families in urban areas.