Child Mortality Rate Has Jumped Since 2019—Report
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The child mortality rate has increased since 2019, with firearm deaths and substance use playing major roles.
Among those aged 1 to 19, the net difference in mortality rates per 100,000 grew from 4 to just under 6 for firearm deaths. Meanwhile, substance use crept from just under 1 to nearly 2 from 2019 to 2022, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Why It Matters
Child mortality rates can see significant shifts based on several factors.
While life expectancy has increased for children throughout the decades, a higher incidence of firearm and drug-related deaths for children can cause the overall mortality rate to climb despite years of historic decline.
A newborn baby girl is reunited with her mother straight after birth in a hospital environment.
A newborn baby girl is reunited with her mother straight after birth in a hospital environment.
Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images
What To Know
The study found significantly worse child mortality rates from 2007 to 2023, as well as for chronic physical and mental health conditions and obesity.
By analyzing mortality statistics from the US and 18 comparator high-income nations from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD18), five nationally representative surveys, and electronic health records from 10 pediatric health systems, researchers discovered that infants were 1.78 times more likely to die in the U.S. than the other nations.
For those aged 1 to 19, that rate was 1.8.
That means from 2007 to 2022, infants born in the US were 78 percent more likely to die when compared with those in other high-income countries. Similarly, American children from age 1 to 19 were 80 percent more likely to die.
The other countries the U.S. was compared to include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
The two causes of death with the most significant net difference between the U.S. and OECD18 were prematurity and sudden unexpected infant death. However, among those aged 1 to 19, firearm incidents and motor vehicle crashes made a significant impact on the higher rates.
"What is most striking to me here is the absolute rise in the mortality rates of 1 -19 year olds in the US during 2022-2022 – the peak COVID period," Alaka M Basu, a child mortality expert and sociology professor at Cornell University, told Newsweek.
"While all these trends are disheartening for the US, I am nevertheless heartened by the fact that there is some improvement post 2022, which suggests that the future may be less grim, or could be made less grim if our recognition of the special toll of the COVD pandemic on US adolescents leads us to do something concrete to help adolescents reduce anxiety (and as a consequence presumably obesity and other chronic illness) levels, as well as the poor behavioral outcomes (violence, drugs) that so often follow anxiety."
What People Are Saying
Alaka M Basu, a child mortality expert and sociology professor at Cornell University, told Newsweek: "Maybe we can look upon the COVID pandemic as a wake-up call not just for vaccine and treatment development, but for acknowledging the special mental and emotional vulnerability of young people to times of stress."
Family physician Dr. Brintha Vasagar told Newsweek: "While other factors contribute, the single biggest driver of this risk is deaths attributable to firearms. U.S. children are a staggering 15 times more likely to die by firearm than other children in this study, and are also at increased risk of death by substance abuse and motor vehicle accident. Child health and mortality are markers for the health of a nation. It is imperative that we implement real changes to address these critical public health needs and reverse these trends.
What Happens Next
The United States has consistently ranked lower than other high-income countries when it comes to child mortality, and mental health may be a significant reason why, Basu said.
Improving mental health resources could be instrumental in keeping the mortality rate down, she said.
"That the US consistently does worse than the OECD countries even before and after COVID on all these indicators is a separate matter, but might also be related to poorer mental health and behavioral conditions in the US in general, which the epidemic then exacerbated. So, certainly, longer-term methods are needed to address this longer-term disadvantage."
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