Infant mortality by birthweight and other characteristics: United States, 1985 birth cohort.

This report presents information from the national linked birth and infant death data set for the birth cohort of 1985, a new National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) resource for studying infant mortality. In the linked tile, birth certificates for infants born in 1985 who died before their first birthday are linked to death certificates for the same infants, thereby making available for analysis of infant mortality a large number of variables from the birth certificate that are relevant to the infant's death. Previous national linked files were developed by the Division of Reproductive Health, Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (CCDPHP), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the 1980 birth cohort, and by NCHS for the 1960 birth cohort. This report is in four parts: The first part includes a brief history of linked birth and infant death record projects in the Public Health Service (PHS) and a description of the methodology by which linked files were created in the present project. The second part presents a descriptive analysis of infant mortality for selected variables by race for the 1985 birth cohort. The third part examines infant mortality rates for detailed race groups, comparing cohort and period rates. The final section provides detailed tables of live births and infant deaths and mortality rates for selected variables by race of child and age at death.