Death rates for young Americans down
death certi¿cates from the US National Center for Health Statistics, Statistics Canada and the UK Of¿ce of National Statistics.
The investigators found that more than 1.1 million infants and young adults died of any cause from 1999 to 2015 in the US. The numbers during that same time period were roughly 81,000 in Canada and 121,000 in England and Wales.
Still, declines in mortality rates were seen in the US, Canada, and England and Wales. Overall, infant deaths declined 39 percent, deaths among children dropped 11 percent, deaths among teens declined 23 percent and deaths among young adults dropped 28 percent, the ¿ndings showed.
But death rates were still the highest in the US, the researchers reported.
In the US, 64 percent of those who died were male. In terms of populations, 53 percent were white, 25 percent were black and 18 percent were Hispanic.
Deaths dropped from many major causes. The most notable declines were seen for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), injury and homicide.
Deaths from some other causes, however, increased in the US, the researchers found. Speci¿cally, more infants died from unintentional suffocation and strangulation in bed, increasing from six per 100,000 in 1999 to 29 per 100,000 in 2002.
“The increase in suffocation and strangulation in bed is likely due to reclassi¿cation of SIDS cases,” Shiels explained.
In addition, deaths from suicide and unintentional injury increased among American teens and young adults. Suicides increased from fewer than one per 100,000 to nearly three per 100,000. The researches attributed the increase in unintentional injury deaths to drug overdoses.
According to Shiels, these increases reàect over 1,700 additional deaths by suicide and about 2,100 additional deaths from drug overdose in 2015, compared with what was expected based on 1999 to 2002 rates.
Despite declines in overall death rates, striking racial disparities were seen in the United States, she said.
For example, the overall infant mortality rate declined by 20 percent between 1999 and 2015, but among blacks, American Indians and Alaska Natives, infant death rates in 2015 remained exceptionally high. Only Asians and Paci¿c Islanders had death rates comparable to England, Wales and Canada, Shiels said.
Part of the racial disparity in infant deaths is the result of unequal access to prenatal care, said Dr. Leopoldo Malvezzi, trauma medical director at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami.
“The numbers are pretty scary,” he said. “Black infants are two times more likely to die than white babies.”
Malvezzi said fewer infant deaths are the result of improved care for premature infants and progress in preventing birth defects. He also stressed the need to ramp up efforts to prevent suicides and drug overdoses among teens and young adults.
“Our adolescents and young adults are dying much more here and elsewhere,” Malvezzi added.
“Suicide prevention has got to become more of an issue because we are losing a lot of young adults and children to suicide and drugs.”