A new report shows the infant mortality rate in Kansas has reached a historic low.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment says 230 infant deaths were reported last year, the lowest figure ever recorded.
That put the infant mortality rate at 5.9 per 1,000 live births in 2015—down from 6.3 from a year before. It’s slightly better than the national rate, and below the target rate of 6 set by the federal health initiative Healthy People 2020.
The mortality rates for white and black infants less than a year old in Kansas both fell, to 4.7 and 10.4 respectively, but the rate for Hispanic infants rose from 6.5 to 7.6 between 2014 and 2015. A 2014 year-end study from KDHE showed overall improvement in reducing the health disparities between white and black infants.
This month, Kansas and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched the Pregnancy Risk Assessment and Monitoring System (PRAM) to study the factors behind poor pregnancy outcomes and high-risk births. They’ll start collecting data on that next year.
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