Heart Disease No. 1 Cause Of Death For Americans
Cancer comes in at No. 2, and combined they cause nearly 50 percent of all deaths in the country. In other public health news, church attendance is linked to lower suicide. rates
Los Angeles Times:
Heart Disease And Cancer Are Responsible For Nearly Half Of All Deaths In The U.S., Report Says
What are the most common ways to die in America? The answer depends on how old you are, whether you’re a man or a woman, and your racial and ethnic background, a new report shows. Alzheimer’s disease accounted for 5% of deaths among U.S. women, for instance, but only 2.1% of deaths among men. Accidents and unintentional injuries caused 39.7% of deaths among people between the ages of 10 and 24, but only 7.4% of deaths for adults between the ages of 45 and 64. Diabetes was responsible for 4.3% of African American deaths and 2.7% of white deaths. (Kaplan, 6/29)
Los Angeles Times:
Church Attendance Linked With Reduced Suicide Risk, Especially For Catholics, Study Says
Against a grim backdrop of rising suicide rates among American women, new research has revealed a blinding shaft of light: One group of women — practicing Catholics — appears to have bucked the national trend toward despair and self-harm. Compared with women who never participated in religious services, women who attended any religious service once a week or more were five times less likely to commit suicide between 1996 and 2010, says a study published Wednesday by JAMA Psychiatry. (Healy, 6/29)