Premature death rates vary in the U.S.... Premature Death Rates in US Fall for Some, Rise for Others, Study says January 25, 2017 - Premature death rates in the United States are falling for some groups and rising for others, a new study suggests.
Alternatively “People aren’t all the same shocker!”. Premature death is a complex concept that will obviously have a wide range and number of influences, often inter-related. You could play with statistics and categorise it on pretty much any characteristic other than race and get exactly the same kind of variations and imbalances (especially if you go in with the intention of generating exactly that kind of result). It doesn’t actually mean anything unless you make direct links between those characteristics and the actual causes of premature death. I think this is a classic example of Americas obsession with race and a demonstration of why it’s a problem. Race is not a cause of death. There are obviously social, cultural and historic patterns that lead to various tendencies and patterns but even these aren’t totally consistent and become ever less so as time goes on. There seems to be a widespread habit of giving those tendencies too much consideration, treating them as hard divisions and thus dismissing all of the various outliers The article talks about these results being a basis for targeting help to different groups but that’s at best an imperfect route. If a problem is drug-addiction, you target drug addicts. You don’t say “A greater proportion of drug addicts are Native American so we’ll focus all our efforts on them” because you’ll be ignoring a vast number of drug addicts who don’t fit your stereotypes.
Premature babies increase in the U.S. for 2nd straight year... Preterm Births in US Increase for a Second Year June 30, 2017 | WASHINGTON — New government data show the health of pregnant women and babies in the U.S. is getting worse, and a report by the National Center for Health Statistics shows the number of babies born prematurely has been increasing since 2014. See also: Premature Birth Still Top Killer of Young Children, Big Problem in US November 17, 2015 | WASHINGTON — People around the world observed World Prematurity Day Tuesday in an attempt to focus attention on the harm babies face when they are born too soon - before 37 weeks in the womb. The March of Dimes, an international advocacy group for child and maternal health, reports that for the first time, the complications of preterm birth now outrank all other causes as the world’s number one killer of young children.
Too Many People Dying Prematurely From Non-communicable Diseases... WHO: Too Many People Dying Prematurely From Non-communicable Diseases September 18, 2017 — The World Health Organization reports some progress is being made in reducing premature deaths from non-communicable diseases. But it says much more needs to be done to save the lives of nearly 40 million people who die every year from preventable causes.
