Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2019
College/Unit
School of Public Health
Department/Program/Center
Epidemiology
Abstract
Although injury-related deaths have been documented among children and adult populations, insufficient attention has been directed towards injury-related infant deaths. The objective of this retrospective study was to investigate maternal and infant characteristics associated with injury-related infant deaths in West Virginia. Birth and infant mortality data for 2010–2014 were sourced from the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health, Charleston. Relative risk was calculated using log-binomial regression utilizing generalized estimating equations. Maternal characteristics associated with injury-related infant mortality in West Virginia were race/ethnicity ( = 7.48, p = .03), and smoking during pregnancy (, p < .00). Risk of a Black Non-Hispanic infant suffering an injury-related death was 4.0 (95% CL 1.7, 9.3) times that of infants of other races/ethnicities. Risk of an infant dying from an injury-related cause, if the mother smoked during pregnancy, was 2.9 (95% CL 1.6, 5.0) times the risk of such a death if maternal smoking status during pregnancy is unknown or no smoking, controlling for race/ethnicity. This study provides important information to public health stakeholders at both the state and local levels in designing interventions for partial reduction or prevention of injury-related infant mortality in West Virginia.
Digital Commons Citation
Koech, Wilson A.; Rudisill, Toni M.; and Rockett, Ian R. H., "Maternal Characteristics Associated with Injury-related Infant Death in West Virginia, 2010-2014" (2019). Faculty & Staff Scholarship. 1834.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/faculty_publications/1834
Source Citation
Koech, W. A., Rudisill, T. M., & Rockett, I. R. H. (2019). Maternal characteristics associated with injury-related infant death in West Virginia, 2010-2014. PLOS ONE, 14(8), e0220801. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0220801
Comments
© 2019 Koech et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, pro