U.S. Infant Mortality Rate Nearly Double That of Japan and Sweden
A new report from the Institute of Medicine took a long, hard look at the American healthcare system and found that we lead on healthcare spending but lag on patient outcomes.
But we knew this already. Many other reports have found the exact same thing.
There is, however, some striking — and troubling — new research in the report: Our infant mortality rate is nearly double the rate in countries like Japan and Sweden.
What’s more troubling is that researchers aren’t sure why, exactly. As the Washington Postreports:
As to what explains the high infant mortality rate, the researchers aren’t quite sure. They say it is not explained by ethnic diversity in the United States. While U.S. minorities do tend to have a higher infant mortality rate, non-Hispanic whites in the United States also have worse outcomes than those in peer nations.
