Spatial perspectives of infant health care:

The purpose of the study is to: (1) examine the location of the infant health care facilities in Hillsborough County; (2) identify the infant mortality rate (deaths under 1 year of life) and the postneonatal mortality rate (deaths from 28 to 365 days of life) by census tract; (3) rank the census tracts by socioeconomic level; and (4) compare the relationship between the location of infant health care facilities, infant death rates, and census tract socioeconomic status.

The infant mortality rate has long been considered one of the most reliable indexes of the general health of a population. Whenever a change occurs in the standard of living of a nation, that change will be reflected with a change in the number of infant deaths. Infant mortality is also a sensitive barometer of the availability and effectiveness of certain types of social and medical services. Insufficient medical and health services, along with under-utilization of existing services, contribute to excessive infant mortality levels. Existing medical techniques and knowledge, if applied properly, could prevent most causes of infant deaths in the United States.

The assumption of an inverse relationship between socioeconomic status and infant death rates is clearly supported by the data from Hillsborough County. Postneonatal mortality rates are particularly sensitive to socioeconomic conditions. During this period death occurs largely from accidents or infectious, digestive and respiratory diseases.

Less clearly established is any significant relationship between high infant death rates and distance to health care facilities. This study has shown that distances are greater to some such services in those tracts scoring low on death rates than tracts which score high. The population of the high-ranking tracts apparently are financially able to overcome the friction of distance between home and health care. The converse is also evident: proximity to health care services by itself does little to ameliorate the depressed socioeconomic conditions which undoubtedly contribute to a high rate of infant mortality.