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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Portland State University

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Minorities -- Health and hygiene -- United States

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Racial Disparities In Infant Mortality, 1990 To 2004: Low Birth Weight, Maternal Complications And Other Causes, Ginny Garcia-Alexander, Hyeyoung Woo May 2015

Racial Disparities In Infant Mortality, 1990 To 2004: Low Birth Weight, Maternal Complications And Other Causes, Ginny Garcia-Alexander, Hyeyoung Woo

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Demographers have long studied the unacceptably high rates of infant mortality in the U.S., relative to other advanced countries. These higher rates are largely attributable to persistent racial gaps in infant health outcomes and are likely a reflection of social inequalities, which manifest as poorer infant health outcomes in certain groups. We extend on previous research in this area by utilizing the restricted 1990 and 2000 cohort linked birth-death files to examine the risk of infant death due to several main causes including: maternal complications, low birth weight, and other causes, and how it has changed over time. We estimate …


Religion And Infant Mortality In The United States: A Community-Level Investigation Of Denominational Variations, Ginny Garcia-Alexander, John P. Bartkowski, Xiaohe Xu May 2012

Religion And Infant Mortality In The United States: A Community-Level Investigation Of Denominational Variations, Ginny Garcia-Alexander, John P. Bartkowski, Xiaohe Xu

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

A burgeoning body of scholarship has explored the influence of community-level religiosity (religious ecology) on various health outcomes. In this study, we enlist data from the Glenmary Census of Churches, county-level infant mortality rates from the NCHS, and select Census data to investigate the relationship between infant mortality and religion. Our study employs both aggregate analyses of major faith traditions (conservative Protestant, mainline Protestant, Catholic, and other religions) as well as decomposition analyses that subdivide conservative Protestants into four variants: fundamentalist, evangelical, Pentecostal, and other conservative Protestant. Our preliminary findings suggest that counties with a high prevalence of Catholic and …


Religion And Infant Mortality In The U.S.: A Preliminary Study Of Denominational Variations, John P. Bartkowski, Xiaohe Xu, Ginny Garcia-Alexander Jul 2011

Religion And Infant Mortality In The U.S.: A Preliminary Study Of Denominational Variations, John P. Bartkowski, Xiaohe Xu, Ginny Garcia-Alexander

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Prior research has identified a number of antecedents to infant mortality, but has been focused on either structural (demographic) forces or medical (public health) factors, both of which ignore potential cultural influences. Our study introduces a cultural model for explaining variations in infant mortality, one focused on the role of community-level religious factors. A key impetus for our study is well-established religious variations in adult mortality at the community level. Seeking to extend the growing body of research on contextual-level effects of religion, this study examines the impact of religious ecology (i.e., the institutional market share of particular denominational traditions) …