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Racial Disparities Reduced In Injury Related Mortality

Date:
June 16, 2008
Source:
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
Summary:
When it comes to injury-related deaths, the gap between black and white American youths is narrowing. A new study found that between 1999 and 2005 injury-related deaths among blacks ages 15 to 24 decreased, while injury-related deaths among whites increased. The findings are published in Injury Prevention.
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When it comes to injury-related deaths, the gap between black and white American youths is narrowing, according to a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study found that between 1999 and 2005 injury-related deaths among blacks ages 15 to 24 decreased, while injury-related deaths among whites increased.

“Between the years of 1999 and 2005 the injury mortality rates among black males have experienced a steady decline,” said Susan Baker, MPH, an author of the study and professor in the Bloomberg School’s Center for Injury Research and Policy. “During those same years, the injury death rate among white males increased by 7 percent. When compared to rates in 1999, the gap between injury rates of black males and white males decreased by 24 percent.”

Using WISQARSTM, a web-based injury statistics query and reporting system, as well as mortality data from several agencies, researchers examined injury mortality rates among Americans between the ages of 15 and 24. Mortality resulting from the ten most common causes of injury-related death was analyzed by race, sex, age, type of injury and state.    

The researchers found that the reduction in racial disparity resulted from a decrease in motor vehicle crashes and firearm suicides among black males and an increase in suicide by suffocation (typically hanging) and unintentional poisoning, such as a drug overdose, among white males. Among young women, black females experienced a decrease in the rate of firearm suicide, while white females experienced an increase in unintentional poisoning and suicidal suffocation.

“The total injury mortality rate among whites did not change significantly; however, there was an 11 percent decrease among blacks,” said Guoqing Hu, PhD, lead author and postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Health Policy and Management. “The reduction could be due to a number of preventive efforts, as well as demographic and economic changes. In two of the ten injury categories, increases in mortality rates among whites were alarming. Unintentional poisoning among males and hanging among females both doubled. The underlying reasons for these increases are unknown but deserve further exploration.”

The researchers were funded by a grant from the Center for Injury Research and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


Story Source:

Materials provided by Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Hu et al. Reducing black/white disparity: changes in injury mortality in the 15-24 year age group, United States, 1999-2005. Injury Prevention, 2008; 14 (3): 205 DOI: 10.1136/ip.2008.018291

Cite This Page:

Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. "Racial Disparities Reduced In Injury Related Mortality." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 16 June 2008. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080616115712.htm>.
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. (2008, June 16). Racial Disparities Reduced In Injury Related Mortality. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 29, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080616115712.htm
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. "Racial Disparities Reduced In Injury Related Mortality." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080616115712.htm (accessed March 29, 2024).

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