Homicide is the leading cause of infant death due to injury.
In the study appearing in the October 22 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, the authors also found that the likelihood of being killed was greatest for infants whose mothers were less than 15 years old, had less than 12 years of school, or did not have prenatal care. One half of the infants killed were dead by the fourth month of life. The authors noted, however, that other studies of nonfatal child abuse suggest that a program to have home nurses visit expectant teenage mothers regularly could reduce the infant homicide rate. Since these needless, tragic deaths occur early in a child's life, the key to preventing them is to reach the mothers early in pregnancy, before the child is born. Dr. Overpeck added that visiting home nurse programs that have reduced the incidence of child abuse have focused on helping teenage mothers gain behavioral skills and support.