Emerging trends in the relationship between infant mortality and socioeconomic status

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Abstract
The infant mortality/socioeconomic status relationship was examined in Toledo, Ohio [USA] for the years centering around 1950, 1960 and 1970 to depict variables that contributed most to infant mortality for each time period. Zero-order correlation coefficients demonstrated that the relationship has widened mainly as a result of an increasing inverse neonatal/socioeconomic pattern which was due in part to a cause-period cross-over effect (exogenous causes of death were contributing to deaths in the neonatal period in 1970). The status variables through which the differentials were operating apparently have shifted from one time period to another. In 1950, crowded housing conditions and unemployment were primarily responsible; in 1960, it was housing and income; and in 1970, marital instability and income predominated. Apparently, as new social phenomena emerge, they quickly affect sensitive indicators of well-being such as the infant mortality rate.