Pediatric mortality rates increased across the US

A research letter published in JAMA Pediatrics reports alarming trends in pediatric mortality rates across the United States. In addition to having higher pediatric mortality rates than 16 other similarly developed nations, the US has also seen a rise in pediatric mortality rates between 2013 and 2021.

“The US has higher mortality rates than in other high-income countries, and we’ve studied how this affects young and middle-aged adults,” Steven H. Woolf, MD, MPH, distinguished chair in population health and health equity at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, and a study author, said in a statement to Healio. “Few studies have examined how this disparity affects US children and teens.”

Researchers gathered US population data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and mortality data from the Human Mortality Database, which includes the US, Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

The investigators calculated excess deaths from 1999 to 2019 for multiple age brackets, including those under 1, 1–4, 5–9, 10–14, and 15–19.

“Put simply, we calculate how many deaths would be averted if American youth experienced the average mortality rate that exists in peer countries,” Woolf added.

According to the study, pediatric mortality rates across the US were higher than those of the 16 countries included in the comparison. Additional insights reveal a rise in mortality rates for children between ages 10 and 19 between 2013 and 202. During that same time period, median mortality rates declined in other countries, causing a wider gap.

More specifically, between 1999 and 2019, the US had 413,948 excess deaths in individuals aged 0–19, with roughly 19,712 annually.

A closer look at the data revealed that infants comprised the majority of excess deaths during this time period, accounting for 56.6%. Additionally, individuals between 1 and 4 years old account for 7.5%, and those between 5 and 9 comprise 3.9% of excess deaths. Furthermore, 10–14-year-olds accounted for 5.8% of excess deaths, and 15–19 made up 26.2%.

“The mortality gap between the US and comparison countries widened in the last decade. Each year, nearly 20 000 deaths among youths  aged 0–19 years would not have occurred had US youths experienced the median mortality rates of 16 comparison countries. More than half of these deaths involved infants, reflecting disproportionately high US infant mortality rates. These findings are consistent with a 1961–2010 estimate of excess US pediatric deaths,” concluded the researchers in the study.