MAHONING COUNTY Death rate among infants is high, report says

Thirty-one of the 46 children who died last year were 1 year old or younger.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- There was good news and bad news in a report issued by the Mahoning County Child Fatality Review Board.
The good news is that deaths among children age 1 to 9 have declined during the past 10 years, falling from 16 in 1993 to three last year.
The bad news is that infant deaths remain high, accounting for two-thirds of all child deaths last year.
According to the report, released Tuesday, 46 children died in the county last year, compared with 44 in 2000. Under Ohio law, a child is anyone 17 and younger.
Last year's total was the highest in the past 10 years, according to the report's statistics.
Of the 46 child fatalities last year, 31 were considered infants, age 12 months or younger. Health officials say that's an alarmingly high number.
Also of concern was the number of deaths among teenagers.
"We know that the deaths of many of these children were preventable," said Matthew Stefanak, county health commissioner. "We've made great progress in reducing injury and disease deaths among young children, but infants and teens in Mahoning County continue to die at rates higher than elsewhere in Ohio."
Causes
Premature births accounted for 11 of the 31 infant deaths, the report says. All but one of those were within the first 27 days after birth. That's largely because those babies were born to unwed, teenage mothers who had poor prenatal care and who either smoke or live with people who smoke.
"Those are more public health issues than infant issues," said Dr. Jesse C. Giles, deputy county coroner. "All we can do is keep trying to educate people about taking better care of themselves, encourage them to see their doctors and try to make that affordable for them."
Giles and Stefanak are co-chairmen of the child fatality review board.
Birth defects, infection and sudden infant death syndrome accounted for the rest of the infant deaths.
"I wish I knew the solution," Stefanak said. "We're trying, but progress is slow."
There were seven deaths of children 15 to 17 last year. Two died in automobile crashes, one each by homicide and suicide, one by an accidental gunshot and one was by an undetermined cause.
Interventions
To help curb teen deaths, the panel recommends implementation and enforcement of curfew restrictions for youth, establishing suicide prevention and post-suicide intervention programs in schools and changing driver license laws to prohibit school-age teen drivers from transporting other teens without an adult in the vehicle, among other things.
The report says that 27 of the 46 child fatalities were in Youngstown. There were four in Boardman, two each in Austintown, Campbell, Poland and Struthers, and one each in Canfield, Diamond, Greenford, New Middletown, North Jackson, Salem and Sebring.
Twenty-five of the fatalities were boys and 21 were girls.
The child fatality review board was created in 2000 to review all fetal and child deaths in the county and develop an understanding of their cause and contributing factors.
bjackson@vindy.com