NCHS Data Briefs

Data Brief, No. 316. Lack of Change in Perinatal Mortality in the United States, 2014–2016.

This data brief presents trends in perinatal mortality, as well as its components, late fetal and early neonatal mortality, for 2014–2016. Also shown are perinatal mortality trends by mother’s age, race and Hispanic origin, and state for 2014–2016 and state perinatal rates for 2016. Rates of perinatal mortality and its components, late fetal and early neonatal mortality, based on the LMP measure of gestational age were essentially flat from 2011 through 2013. This report demonstrates a similar lack of change in the perinatal mortality rate based on the obstetric estimate of gestational age (OE) measure from 2014 through 2016. During this time, the perinatal mortality rates for the three largest race and Hispanic-origin groups were unchanged, as were those for most maternal age groups and in the vast majority of states. The rate of perinatal mortality for non-Hispanic black women was about twice as high as those for non-Hispanic white and Hispanic women for each year from 2014 through 2016. Differences in the risk of perinatal mortality were observed by maternal age and by state. Perinatal rates by race and Hispanic origin of the mother for 2014–2016 exclude data for Rhode Island, which did not report race and Hispanic-origin data for fetal deaths in 2015. Data from the Fetal Death Data File and the Linked Birth/Infant Death Data File from the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) were used for these analyses

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