To better understand the issues and to inform its deliberation in formulating recommendations for policy, research, and practice, the Infant Mortality Commission asked experts in various fields related to maternal and child health and infant mortality to prepare background papers on specific issues. This background paper seeks to expand our understanding of the causes and effects of infant mortality within a broader global context. It offers comparisons between infant mortality in the U.S. and in other nations across the globe, providing a compassionate examination of the impact of social and economic inequalities on population health and infant mortality. The author concludes with policy recommendations to help mitigate or eliminate the inequalities that contribute to infant mortality. This analysis complements and reinforces the recommendations of other Courage to Love: Infant Mortality Commission background and framing papers on infant mortality and maternal nutrition; infant mortality and resilience; the role of breastfeeding in maternal and infant health; the historical framework of policies and practices to reduce infant mortality; and the authentic voices of those affected by infant mortality.

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This report examines Senator Barack Obama’s and Senator John McCain’s health care proposals in the context of eliminating the nation’s longstanding racial/ethnic disparities in health and health care.

In recent years, as states have faced increasing difficulty balancing their budgets, many have implemented measures to help achieve solvency by limiting spending within their Medicaid programs. Medicaid is the federal/state health insurance program that serves low-income seniors, children, working families, and people with disabilities, more than half of whom are people of color. States’ recent cost containment measures have changed the way Medicaid operates and have altered the access to and the quality of health-care services and treatments received by enrollees. Since the program is funded jointly by the federal and state governments and is administered by states, elected officials at both of these levels of government engage in the program’s rule making.

Family characteristics and intra-familial relationships — for example, family structure, communication within families, and an adolescent’s perception of parental control — are foremost among the factors that influence an adolescent’s sexual behaviors. Some family characteristics influence African American teens differently from the way they do teens of other racial or ethnic groups. In addition, the effects of these characteristics often differ by gender within the African American teen population. Although many family characteristics and their influences cannot be altered, a clear understanding of these influences on adolescent sexual behaviors can inform interventions to meet the needs of African American teens. This issue brief uses findings from research literature published between the late 1970s and the early 21st century to examine the relationship between family influences and the sexual behavior of African American adolescents (Leigh and Andrews 2002).

Men of color face many challenges in achieving and maintaining good health. Their social circumstances and cultural norms, as well as the larger society’s discriminatory treatment of them, often engender in these men unhealthful responses. When social circumstances include poverty, limited education, and scarce employment opportunities, the impact on health can be especially harmful. This brief provides an overview of factors that influence the health and longevity of men of color in the United States, and makes policy recommendations for improving their health status.

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This report addresses some of the significant concerns that have arisen as a result of the implementation of Medicare Part D. It focuses particularly on the population of low-income and/or disabled beneficiaries eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare whose drug coverage was shifted from Medicaid to Medicare.

Although a few highly visible African Americans have reached positions of high status, income, and power in the United States, most blacks still live separately from whites, and significantly lag behind whites in terms of income, housing, health, and education.1 Other non-white groups, including Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans, also rank lower than whites on many measures of living conditions and opportunities, and tend to live in ethnic enclaves. Of all those not classified as members of the dominant white group, young men of color (YMC) are particular objects of stereotyping, fear, anger, misunderstanding, and rejection. Indeed, public attitudes and emotions restrict their lives and keep them from enjoying the full range of opportunities and benefits of American society.

This background paper focuses on the status of black male students in higher education in the U.S. It examines public flagship universities in each of the 50 states, providing stark evidence of racial disparities in public higher education, particularly for black males. Its statistical analysis of college access, graduation rates, degree attainment, and black student athletes illustrates the extent of these disparities across the nation and “the need to strengthen the social contract between public institutions of higher education and black male citizens” through various reforms.

This background paper focuses on the barriers that are limiting the educational and life paths of boys and young men of color. Specifically, the paper creates an action agenda centered on nine topics within education policy: high-stakes testing, school finance, literacy, recruitment of representative teachers, teacher preparation, school choice, single-sex classrooms/schools, structure of school day/year, and zero-tolerance policies.

This report examines the child welfare system with respect to the ability of minority children to pursue positive life options, with a special emphasis on male children of color.