Sanford Research in South Dakota has received more than one point seven million dollars in funding from the National Institutes of Health to study methods to decrease infant mortality rates among American Indian communities.  Dr. Amy Elliott is the lead researcher in this study…

 

Infant death rates among American Indians are almost double that of white infants at eleven point two per one thousand live births.  In South Dakota, post-neonatal death rates were three hundred sixty seven percent higher in American Indian communities in 2013.  Elliott says the study will reach across cultural differences to educate clients…

 

Elliott says the project is community based and is geared towards finding the effects of resources, socio-economic status, and education on the infant mortality rate within Native American populations.  She says the results of this study will hopefully apply to other states as well.