Children in households where the parents are poor and not well-educated suffer worse health outcomes than their peers in richer and better educated households, says a new report from the Princeton, N.J.-based Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
But even children in well-off families aren’t as healthy as they could be, according to the report, which the foundation says is the first to rank states on infant mortality and children’s health status based on key socioeconomic factors.
The report finds that babies born to mothers with at least 16 years of education are less likely to die before their first birthdays than babies born to mothers who have not finished high school.
But even among babies born to the most educated mothers, infant mortality rates in nearly every state exceed a rate that researchers say should be attainable in every state—a national benchmark rate of 3.2 infant deaths per 1,000 live births.
