Some context: A scary trend we looked into more closely.
Researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University and Children's Hospital of Richmond previously found that death rates among children and adolescents increased 18% between 2019 and 2021. Deaths related to injuries have increased so dramatically that they outweigh any public health benefits.
Hoping to investigate the worrying trend further, the group obtained death certificate data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's public WONDER database, stratifying it by race, ethnicity and cause for children ages 1 to 19. They found that blacks and American Indians: /Not only are Alaska Native children dying at much higher rates than white children, the gap that was improving by 2013 is widening.
The data also shows that while mortality rates for children overall worsened around 2020, mortality rates for Black, Native American, and Hispanic children began increasing much earlier, around 2014.
Between 2014 and 2020, the death rate among Black children and youth increased by about 37%, and the death rate among Native American youth increased by about 22%. In contrast, the mortality rate for white adolescents is less than 5%.
“We knew we would find a gap, but it certainly wasn’t that big,” said Dr. Steven Woolf, a professor of family medicine at the VCU School of Medicine who worked on the study. “We were shocked.”
The numbers: Injuries, especially firearm injuries, are deepening disparities.
Racial and ethnic disparities were most stark when injuries were isolated from other causes of death. For example, between 2016 and 2020, Black children died in homicides at 10 times the rate of white children. When comparing accidents to intentional injuries, Dr. Elizabeth Wolf, lead author of the study and associate professor of pediatrics at VCU School of Medicine, said: The sobering reality of the mental health crisis came into focus.
The suicide rate among Native American children was already more than twice that of white children.
“As a pediatrician, it was truly breathtaking,” she said.
Gun-related deaths, including accidents, homicides, and suicides, are two to four times higher among Black and Native American youth compared to white youth, and the risk of dying from a firearm-related injury is more than two times higher among Black and Native American youth. Between 2013 and 2020.
Researchers also noted differences in other causes of death. For example, Native American children were three times more likely to die from pneumonia and the flu than white children, and black children were nearly eight times more likely to die from asthma than white children.
What happens next: In-depth research and policy change.
This particular study did not examine all variables that contribute to the causes of childhood illness, injury, and death. Dr. Wolff said he hoped the paper would serve as a “wake-up call” and spur researchers to take a closer look at the underlying factors.
For example, understanding why car crash fatalities are increasing can help us determine whether redesigning intersections or targeting seatbelt campaigns are the most effective interventions for specific groups.
For other child deaths, access to care is a likely factor, given that black children with circulatory conditions are less likely to be referred for transplant and less likely to have successful procedures compared to white children. Asthma-related illness and death are likely to be influenced by socioeconomic and environmental factors, such as air pollution, as well as access to interventions such as inhalers.
At the same time, Dr. Wolf said policymakers should “not wait for more research to identify obvious next steps,” including mental health supports for children and stricter gun laws. He said public awareness of gun violence among children often focuses on school shootings, but statistically speaking, “the vast majority happen one after another, every day, in communities across our country.”