Slowly, a gap closes.

Maternal and child health disparities between the poorest neighborhoods and others in four metropolitan areas narrowed in the 1990s, but key indicators remain far from ideal levels. (1) Analysts used vital statistics and census data to compare rates of teenage births, late prenatal care, low birth weight and infant mortality in "high-poverty" neighborhoods (those in which 30% or more of residents were below the poverty line in 1990) and others in Cuyahoga County, Ohio; Denver; Marion County, Indiana; and Oakland. In all four areas, trends from 1990 to 2000 were most favorable in the poorest neighborhoods, but substantial disparities remain. For example, high-poverty neighborhoods in Marion County saw a greater decline than others in the teenage birthrate, but they still had the higher rate at the end of the decade (12 vs. six births per 100 women aged 15-19). Furthermore, in the high-poverty neighborhoods in each metropolitan area, all four rates were considerably higher than the Healthy People 2010 goals. The analysts conjecture that the observed gains were due partly to demographic shifts and partly to the effects of intensive interventions and improved social conditions.

(1.) Howell EM, Pettit KLS and Kingsley GT, Trends in maternal and infant health in poor urban neighborhoods: good news from the 1990s, but challenges remain, Public Health Reports, 2005, 120(4):409-417.

FYI is compiled and written by Dore Hollander, executive editor of Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health.