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CITY DATA
How does the health of infants and children
in America's cities compare to that of children
nationwide? This section includes data on infant
mortality, low birth weight, and prenatal care
for women and children who reside in the nation's
central cities with populations over 100,000.
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As the following data indicate, the health status
of children living in large U.S. cities is generally
inferior to that of children in the nation as a whole.
While the infant mortality rate has decreased in both
cities and the nation, a disparity in rates remains.
Higher rates of low birth weight contributed to the
1999 city infant mortality rate of 8.0 deaths per
1,000 live births; the national rate for 1999 was
7.1. The percentage of pregnant women receiving first
trimester prenatal care is lower in cities (79.7 percent)
as compared to the nation (84.9 percent). The percentage
of women receiving late or no prenatal care is higher
in cities than in the nation as a whole (5.0 percent
versus 3.3 percent).
The challenge for health care providers and special
initiatives is to eliminate these disparities by improving
the health status of children in the nation's cities.
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