The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is charged with not only tracking outbreaks of infectious diseases and assisting in their identification and containment, but also to quantify and analyze factors impacting on the health of Americans. Part of this mission is also to determine those factors that lead to the deaths of Americans and how commonly they occur in any given year. The most recent analysis of causes of death (for the 2009 calendar year) has just been released (Kochanek) and many of the results remain predictable, while the average person will find some are rather surprising.
Heart Disease is the #1 Killer of Americans
As was true for the previous year, heart disease remained the number one cause of death for Americans. Out of 2,436,652 recorded US deaths for 2009, there were 598,607 (or 24.57%) due to diseases of the heart. Heart disease was immediately followed again by deaths due to cancer, at 23.33% of recorded deaths (568,668 deaths). In fact, the top 10 causes of death remained the same comparing 2009 to data reported for 2008.
Top Ten Causes of Death in the USA
An examination of the top causes of death amongst all age groups in the US would likely not provide any surprises for medical professionals but the same might not be said for the average person on the street. The National Vital Statistics Report lists the following as the top 10 leading causes of death in the US for 2009:
- heart diseases
- cancer
- lung diseases (not cancer)
- diseases of brain blood vessels
- accidents
- Alzheimer’s disease
- diabetes
- influenza and pneumonia
- kidney diseases
- suicide
It is a sobering fact to realize that one in every 67 recorded deaths in the US in 2009 was a suicide. And most people are likely not aware that 53,582 US deaths in 2009 were due to influenza and pneumonia. With the growing percentage of Americans suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or from diabetes, perhaps these diseases will move up the list from their current positions at numbers 6 and 7 respectively.
Deaths of Children Aged 1 to 4 Years
In young children in 2009 in the US, accidents remain the leading cause of death, both motor vehicle accidents and others, accounting for nearly a third of all deaths in this age group. Perhaps more surprising is the fact that assault (homicide) accounts for nearly 10% of all deaths of children in this age group.
While some may feel squeamish at the thought of analyzing statistics regarding death, they are important indicators of where a society can and should improve its approach to prevention.
Source:
Kochanek KD, Xu JQ, Murphy SL, Miniño AM, Kung HC. Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2009. National Vital Statistics Reports; vol 59 no 4. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2011.
Kenneth Rosen - I am a medical research doctor with more than 20 years of experience studying how the nervous system and skeletal muscle develop and ...
Join the Conversation