Study Shows Mortality Rate for Children in U.S. Rose in 2020 and 2021
The mortality rate for children and teens in the United States rose in 2020 and 2021. According to a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), this increase is due to firearms, drug use and vehicle accidents.
It’s important to note that even though COVID-19 mortality rates doubled among children between 2020 and 2021, they only account for around a fifth of the total increase in mortality in 2021. Notably, firearms make up for nearly half of the increase in mortality.
Infants are the one group that did not see a jump in mortality rate. Most of this increase was in older children. Those between the ages of 10 and 19 experienced a 23% increase between 2019 and 2020 in injury mortality. This includes a 39% increase in homicides and a doubling in the rate of drug overdoses.
“Medicine and public health have made remarkable progress in lowering pediatric mortality rates, but the lives they have saved are now endangered by man-made pathogens.”
-Authors of the study from Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and the University of Washington
The study’s authors note that current efforts to understand gun violence and enact firearm policies to counteract the increased firearm mortality rate are not progressing with the rate of mortality.
What’s Next?
While there are no current solutions to the rise in child mortality rates, there are projected to be research and policy efforts to address the underlying causes in order to provide help to those affected.
The content of this News Brief is of general interest and is not intended to apply to specific circumstances. It should not be regarded as legal advice and not be relied upon as such. In relation to any particular problem which they may have, readers are advised to seek specific advice. © 2023 Zywave, Inc. All rights reserved.