Reducing the Child Death Rate
The Annie E. Casey Foundation
July 2009
Summary
Issue Overview
From 2000 to 2006, the mortality rate for children ages 1 to 14 years fell by 14 percent, dropping from 22 to 19 deaths per 100,000 children. Despite this progress, the child death rate in the United States remains higher than in many other wealthy nations. Many of these deaths are preventable. Injury continues to be the chief cause of death for the nation’s children and youth. Moreover, despite decades of progress, geographic, racial and ethnic disparities in the child mortality rate persist.
Promising Strategies
Five strategies are essential for any plan aimed at further reducing the child death rate.
- Prevent chronic childhood conditions and promote lifelong health. Researchers report a significant increase, over two decades, in the number of children affected by chronic diseases and health impairments—from allergies and asthma to obesity and obesity-related diabetes. Many of those diseases take root much earlier than previously thought.
- Support parents and families in their caretaking roles. Accidental injury causes more than half of all childhood deaths. The recent decline in such deaths is likely the result of both improvements in parent education about the use of safety products such as seat belts and bicycle helmets, and improvements in the products themselves. More educated parents have greater access to child safety information than parents with less education.
- Ensure children have safe places to learn and play when they are away from home. Ensuring that people have safe communities and public spaces in which to gather and spend time is a key strategy for safeguarding children.
- Continue to Promote Motor Vehicle Safety. In 2007, motor vehicle accidents were the leading cause of death for children ages three to six and eight to 14. Riding without appropriate restraints (seatbelts or properly installed child safety seats) continues to be the greatest risk factor for death and injury among child occupants of motor vehicles.
- Target other leading health and safety hazards. Most unintentional injuries are avoidable. Safety experts urge efforts to increase water safety; prevent deaths from fires, burns, and smoke inhalation; promote the use of bicycle helmets; prevent deaths caused by airway obstructions; and prevent deaths from firearms.
To read the whole indicator brief go to Reducing the Child Death Rate