Ethnicity and infant deaths: the implications of recent statistical evidence for materialist explanations

The paper begins with a summary of recent OPCS data on ethnic inequalities in infant deaths, emphasizing the diversity of trends which they demonstrate. It continues by reviewing the implications of this evidence for materialist, and other, explanations of health inequalities. It is suggested that further progress in developing explanations for patterns of ethnic minority infant mortality would be facilitated by greater refinement of indices of economic deprivation and ethnicity.