“Since the beginning of this decade, death rates have risen among people between the ages of 25 and 44 in virtually every racial and ethnic group, according to” a front-page analysis by the Washington Post (6/9, A1, Achenbach, Keating), which found “the death rate among African Americans is up 4 percent, Hispanics 7 percent, whites 12 percent and Native Americans 18 percent.” The Post added that “after a century of decreases, the overall death rate for Americans in these prime years rose 8 percent between 2010 and 2015,” increased “in large measure by drug overdoses and alcohol abuse, according to…mortality data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” Robert Anderson, chief of mortality statistics for the CDC, said that based on preliminary 2016 data, “I think we’re in for another steep increase in the drug overdose deaths overall.” Leandris Liburd, director of the CDC’s Office of Minority Health and Health Equity, asserted, “The data [are] very concerning.”
Related Links:
— “Drug crisis is pushing up death rates for almost all groups of Americans,”Joel Achenbach, The Washington Post, June 09, 2017.