Long-lived America

OB/GYN News, Nov 15, 2001 by Sally Peters

Americans are living longer than ever, a new report says. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's new report "Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2000" analyzes more than 85% of the death certificates recorded in the United States for 2000. Age-adjusted death rates for heart disease and cancer, the two leading causes of death in the United States, continue to fall, and the estimated life expectancy in the year 2000 reached a record, high of 76.9 years. In its fifth straight year of decline, mortality decreased by 3.7% for HIV infection. Conversely, mortality increased for certain leading causes of death, such as Alzheimer's disease, influenza, and pneumonia, the report shows. The infant mortality rate in the United States was at its lowest ever in 2000: 6.9 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, down from a rate of 7.1 in 1999. The leading cause of infant mortality was congenital malformations, deformations, and chromosomal abnormalities, which accounted for 20.7% of all infant deaths. The report maybe found at www.cdc.gov/nchs.>