IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v33y1991i3p327-334.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Infant mortality among ethnic immigrant groups

Author

Listed:
  • Weeks, John R.
  • Rumbaut, Rubén G.

Abstract

The numerically large and growing Indochinese refugee population has been little studied with respect to infant health. It is a population that is young, is experiencing high fertility, late onset of prenatal care, and is characterized by low socioeconomic status. Thus, it presents a high risk profile with respect to infant mortality. Using linked birth and infant death records for the San Diego metropolitan area for the period 1978-1985 infant mortality rates (IMRs) were calculated for Indochinese refugee groups from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in comparison with other ethnic groups. We found, surprisingly, that Indochinese refugees as a group had an IMR below that for non-Hispanic Whites and substantially below that for Blacks. In general, IMRs for Indochinese refugees were similar to those for other Asian groups. These findings held even after controlling for birth weight and onset of prenatal care. The timing and causes of death suggest areas in which the IMR could drop to even lower levels with improved community outreach programs, especially among refugee groups from Laos (Hmong and Lao) who exhibited the unusual pattern of higher post-early neonatal than early neonatal mortality.

Suggested Citation

  • Weeks, John R. & Rumbaut, Rubén G., 1991. "Infant mortality among ethnic immigrant groups," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 327-334, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:33:y:1991:i:3:p:327-334
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0277-9536(91)90367-L
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. S. M. Kanaiaupuni, "undated". "Child Well-Being and the Intergenerational Effects of Undocumented Immigrant Status," Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers 1210-00, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty.
    2. Melissa L. Martinson & Marta Tienda, 2016. "Birthing, Nativity, and Maternal Depression: Australia and the United States," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 793-824, September.
    3. Elizabeth Baker & Michael Rendall & Margaret Weden, 2015. "Epidemiological Paradox or Immigrant Vulnerability? Obesity Among Young Children of Immigrants," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(4), pages 1295-1320, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:33:y:1991:i:3:p:327-334. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.