USA death rates drop from chronic diseases, unintentional injuries

The researchers speculate the death rates didn’t continue their steady decline because the obesity epidemic started to emerge around that time. The lessening of death rates reduced in the most recent years, from 2010 to 2013, with a drop of an average of just 0.4 % annually, a rate so minuscule that it was not statistically important. The decline was true across many causes of death: heart disease, cancer, stroke, unintentional injuries, and diabetes.

Researchers from the American Cancer Society (ACS) analyzed decades worth of data to determine the longevity and, subsequently, death rates of American citizens between 1969 and 2013.

However, experts at the Amercian Cancer Society, said the death rate for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has increased over the 44-year period.

The massive decline in deaths from heart disease and strokes is attributed to better treatments such as the development of effective drugs to lower cholesterol and blood pressure. Advancement in the treatment of such diseases and quitting smoking has also helped the cause.

Death certificate data, analysed between 1069 and 2013, has revealed an overall fall in age-standardised death rates for all causes of death. Meaning that death rates have declined for 5 out of 6 death rates in the last 44 years, but 3 out of those 5 have officially slowed. “There are half a million deaths a year due attributable to tobacco-related illnesses. It’s debilitating and it’s very sad and the cases of death caused by COPD are on the rise”.

The researchers also raised concerns about the aging USA population and shortage of medical personnel that may negatively effect death rates in the country in the next several years. The cancer death rate dropped by 18 percent (from 198 deaths per 100,000 people to 163 deaths per 100,000 people per year); and the diabetes death rate dropped by about 16 percent (from 25 deaths per 100,000 people to 21 deaths per 100,000 people per year), according to the report, published online today (Oct. 27) in the journal JAMA. For COPD, the rate for years of potential life lost did not decrease over this time interval.

‘Notably, the years-of-potential-life lost rate from cancer has been decreasing since 1969, preceding the decline in cancer death rates by about 20 years.

The COPD death rate reflects the different smoking patterns among men and women.

“Further disease-specific studies are needed to investigate these trends”, the researchers wrote. Death rates (measured as the number of deaths per 100,000 people in a given year) in the United States have been declining for decades, an effect of improvements in health care, disease management and medical technology – and the researchers had expected to find more of the same. The study noted that while the ACS supported the research it had no role in its design or interpretation.

Dr. J. Michael McGinnis, from the National Academy of Medicine, said more progress is possible, but it will take individual and community effort.