Women older than 35 years and Black women are more likely than other women to experience stillbirth, according to a report in the American Journal of Public Health.

Previous studies have found disparities in stillbirth rates between Black and White women and between older and younger women, the authors explain, but these studies have not investigated how stillbirth rate differences vary across generations.

Dr. Cande V. Ananth from UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, New Jersey and colleagues analyzed the trends in stillbirths among Black and White women in the United States between 1981 and 2000.

Stillbirth rates declined by 33 percent among Blacks and by 46 percent among Whites during the study interval, the authors report, but stillbirth rates were still twice as high among Black women (6.6 per 1000 births) as among White women (3.2 per 1000 births).