2014/02/27 by Jan Saarela, Fjalar Finnäs · 1 citation
Health Professions · Social Sciences · #Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations #Racial and Ethnic Identity Research #Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/srep04214
openalex publication_date 2014/02/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
We provide the first analyses of infant mortality rates by indigenous ethnic group in Finland, a country that has one of the lowest relative numbers of infant deaths in the world. Using files from the Finnish population register, we identified both of the parents of children born in the period from 1975-2003 according to ethnic affiliation, socioeconomic profile, and demographic position. The infant mortality rate in homogamous Finnish unions is similar to that in homogamous Swedish unions, which reflects a lack of social disparities between the two groups. Surprisingly, infants from ethnically mixed unions have markedly lower mortality rates, with an adjusted rate ratio of 0.81 relative to homogamous Swedish unions (95% CI: 0.67-0.98). Although not empirically verified, we argue that the lower infant mortality rate in ethnically mixed unions may be due to lower levels of inbreeding, and hence related to historically low intermarriage rates between the two ethnic groups, remote consanguinities, and restricted inter-community gene flow.