US death rates decline in four of six causes – study

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Better treatments for chronic illnesses
like heart disease and cancer have led to a drop in the U.S.
death rate since 1970, but Americans face increasing threats
from obesity and smoking, a study said on Tuesday.

An American Cancer Society analysis of annual U.S.
mortality rates found deaths from all causes declined from
1,242 deaths per 100,000 in 1970 to 845 per 100,000 people in
2002 – a 32 percent decrease.

The look at six leading causes of death found mortality
rates over three decades declined 63 percent for stroke, 52
percent for heart disease, 41 percent for accidents and 3
percent for cancer. The death rate from chronic lung disease
doubled and it rose 45 percent from diabetes, an outgrowth of
an aging population that smoked and rising rates of obesity.

“While improved detection and treatment for chronic
diseases has resulted in declining mortality rates, it has also
increased the prevalence of ‘treated disease’ and an associated
increase in health care expenditures,” wrote study author
Ahmedin Jemal of the American Cancer Society.

The decline in death rates from stroke and accidents has
slowed since the early 1990s, the report said, citing the
relaxation of highway speed limits for the latter. A decline
since 1990 in cancer death rates was credited to tobacco
control efforts.

Though the nation’s death rate declined, the actual number
of Americans dying increased because the population grew and
became older, the report published in this week’s issue of the
Journal of the American Medical Association said.