The Top Ten Causes of Death in America

According to the CDC Division of Vital Statistics the following were the leading causes of death in 2007. These apply to both male and female adults. Rank:

• Number of deaths: 2,423,712
• Death rate: 803.6 deaths per 100,000 population
• Life expectancy: 77.9 years
• Infant Mortality rate: 6.75 deaths per 1,000 live births

Number of deaths for leading causes of death:

• Heart disease: 616,067
• Cancer: 562,875
• Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 135,952
• Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 127,924
• Accidents (unintentional injuries): 123,706
• Alzheimer’s disease: 74,632
• Diabetes: 71,382
• Influenza and Pneumonia: 52,717
• Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 46,448
• Septicemia: 34,828

Another interesting statistic of note can be found in “Is US Health Really the Best in the World?”, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and written by Barbara Starfield, MD, MPH. In this paper Dr. Starfield gives the following statistics:

• 7,000 deaths occur each year due to medication errors in hospitals
• 12,000 deaths occur each year due to unnecessary surgery
• 20,000 deaths occur each year due to other hospital errors
• 80,000 deaths occur each year due to nosocomial infections in hospitals
• 106,000 deaths occur each year due to adverse effects to properly prescribed medications

This equals 225,000 deaths due to what are known as iatrogenic causes. This would place them as the third leading cause of death – just above cerebrovascular diseases at 162,672 deaths.