Journal article
1965 US Voting Rights Act Impact on Black and Black Versus White Infant Death Rates in Jim Crow States, 1959-1980 and 2017-2021
American journal of public health (1971), v 114(3), pp 300-308
Mar 2024
PMID: 38301191
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
To investigate the impact of the US Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 on Black and Black versus White infant deaths in Jim Crow states.
Using data from 1959 to 1980 and 2017 to 2021, we applied difference-in-differences methods to quantify differential pre-post VRA changes in infant deaths in VRA-exposed versus unexposed counties, controlling for population size and social, economic, and health system characteristics. VRA-exposed counties, identified by Section 4, were subject to government interventions to remove existing racist voter suppression policies.
Black infant deaths in VRA-exposed counties decreased by an average of 11.4 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.7, 21.0) additional deaths beyond the decrease experienced by unexposed counties between the pre-VRA period (1959-1965) and the post-VRA period (1966-1970). This translates to 6703 (95% CI = 999.6, 12 348) or 17.5% (95% CI = 3.1%, 28.1%) fewer deaths than would have been experienced in the absence of the VRA. The equivalent differential changes were not significant among the White or total population.
Passage of the VRA led to pronounced reductions in Black infant deaths in Southern counties subject to government intervention because these counties had particularly egregious voter suppression practices. (
2024;114(3):300-308. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2023.307518).
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Details
- Title
- 1965 US Voting Rights Act Impact on Black and Black Versus White Infant Death Rates in Jim Crow States, 1959-1980 and 2017-2021
- Creators
- Tamara Rushovich - Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyRachel C Nethery - Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyAriel White - Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyNancy Krieger - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Publication Details
- American journal of public health (1971), v 114(3), pp 300-308
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Urban Health Collaborative
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001208282400011
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85185703642
- Other Identifier
- 991022051415504721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Public, Environmental & Occupational Health