| Health Disparities |
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Many of the health problems Black children face can be attributed to the effects of poverty. Poverty stacks the odds against children before birth and decreases their chance of being born healthy and at normal birthweight. Lack of prenatal care, low birthweight, poor health and being uninsured put young Black children at high risk of entering the Cradle to Prison Pipeline. Minority Babies Are Born at a Health Disadvantage. Black babies are more than twice as likely to die before their first birthday as White babies.
The Black infant mortality rate in 2009 was about the same as the White infant mortality rate in 1977.
Black babies were more than twice as likely as White babies to be born to mothers who received late or no prenatal care in 18 of the 25 states for which data are available for 2009. A Black baby was almost twice as likely as a White or Hispanic baby to be born at low birthweight in 2009. A child born at low birthweight is more likely to have health, behavioral, and learning problems down the road.
More than one in six Black children has asthma. When uncontrolled, asthma can affect a child’s ability to learn and sleep, and require hospital treatment or visits to the emergency department. Black children and teens are more than one-and-a-half times as likely as White children and teens to be obese. Almost 40 percent of Black children and teens were overweight or obese in 2009-2010. |
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