ABSTRACT
The United States and other countries gauge the health of their nations on many statistical factors. One of those is the infant mortality rate, which is defined as the number of infant deaths, under 1 year of age, per 1000 live births. Nations with high infant mortality rates are considered to be less healthy than those with low infant mortality rates. The United States, even with all of its medical advances, has one of the highest infant mortality rates among industrialized nations; as a result, one of the
Healthy People 2010
national goals is to reduce the number of infant deaths.
