Suicides more than victims of road accidents
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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In the United States of America suicides took the first place among all the causes of unnatural death.
Such data were obtained in a study conducted by the School of Public Health and the Research Center for Traumatology of the University of West Virginia. In addition, representatives of nine other institutes participated in the study.
Researchers also recorded a decrease in the relative number of diseases, while the level of injuries in the United States is growing.
During the control period, 2000-2009 were taken and the data of the National Center for Medical Statistics on mortality was studied. Scientists were interested in unnatural deaths, that is, lethal outcomes as a result of unintentional or violent actions.
Ian Rockett, Professor of the Department of Epidemiology of the School of Public Health at the University of West Virginia, lead author of the article about the results of the study, emphasized that as a result of the investigation, many unexpected facts were discovered.
"Suicide is now the most common cause of unnatural deaths, that is, caused by unintentional or violent actions," Rockett said. "Suicide circumvented this" ranking "of traffic accidents only in the last year of the control period, 2009. In 2009, the number of suicides increased by 15 percent compared to 2000. "
Also, researchers found that the number of deaths from unintentional poisoning increased from 2000 to 2009 by more than half, by 128 percent.
"Unintentional poisoning rose to third place among all the causes of unnatural deaths, as we learned, primarily because of the huge increase in the number of deaths caused by prescribed anesthetics," Professor Ian Rockett explained.
Mortality associated with road traffic accidents ranks second in a dubious rating, but researchers note that in 2009, the number of deaths due to car accidents decreased by a quarter in 2009, which can be noted as a positive trend.
"For a long time, great efforts have been made to achieve safety on the roads," explains Professor Rockett. "Now, the same efforts are needed in other areas of injury prevention."
In the fourth place in terms of the number of human casualties, unintentional falls took place, the number of which has increased by 71 percent in ten years. The fifth place is occupied by murders.
In addition, representatives of the University of West Virginia and their colleagues from other academic institutions found that the death rate of men from violent acts and accidents is twice as high as that of women. However, during the control period, the increase in the number of unnatural deaths among women was twice as high as in men.
With respect to racial differences, for the white population, mortality from unnatural causes increased by 20 per cent in the ten years, while among African-Americans and people from Latin America, the mortality rate from similar factors decreased by 11 per cent.
"White is now dying an unnatural death more often than these two major minority groups," Professor Rockett said.
Analyzed by researchers and age patterns of mortality from intentional or unintentional actions. It turned out that in children under 14 years of age the risk of dying of insolent death is 78 percent lower than that of young people aged 15 to 24 years. In people aged 24 and older, similar risk increases almost threefold compared with the group of 15-24-year-olds.
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