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Neonatal Mortality Rate
Neonatal deaths are a subset of infant deaths. A neonatal death is an
infant death that occurs less than 28 days after birth. The life may be
measured in terms of minutes, hours, days, or weeks.
In 1998, there were 211 neonatal deaths and 36,831 live births in Arkansas.
These 211 deaths accounted for about 62 percent of the 339 infant deaths
in the state that year. Most of these deaths are attributable to causes
having their origin in the prenatal period. Approximately two in seven
neonatal deaths are due to congenital anomalies. The Neonatal Mortality
Rate is calculated in a manner very similar to the Infant Mortality Rate.
Neonatal Mortality Rate = (211 / 36,831) X 1,000 = 5.7 neonatal deaths per
1,000 live births. The neonatal mortality rate for the United States in
1998 was 4.8.
As the map indicates, neonatal mortality varies across the state. Prairie
County had the highest neonatal mortality rate for the 1994-1998 period at
16.9, followed by Nevada County at 16.8.
For the ADH Health Management Areas, the average neonatal mortality rate
ranged from a low of 3.8 in Area 3 to a high of 6.8 in Area 8 and 6.2 in
Areas 5 and 9.
Neonatal mortality is similar to infant mortality in that there are
significant differences by race. The five-year average rate for Whites
was 4.6, versus 8.4 for Blacks.
The year-to-year pattern for neonatal mortality in Arkansas, like that
of infant mortality, shows considerable fluctuation. The average
neonatal mortality rate for the five-year period from 1994-1998 was
5.4 deaths per 1,000 live births, with a high of 5.7 in 1998 and a low
of 5.0 in 1994. The neonatal mortality rate rose slightly, though not
significantly, in 1998 from 5.1 to 5.7.
Nationally, neonatal mortality rates, like infant mortality rates, have
exhibited a steady decline, moving from 8.5 in 1980 to 4.8 in 1998.
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