Common Causes of Death (U.S.)

00:00 Common Causes of Death. Common causes of death vary by age and for this you can look at individuals that are between 1-4 years old. The leading cause of death is accidents and this is in the U.S.

00:18 so that major cause of accident is motor vehicle accidents. Also notice that are very high component to this is congenital abnormalities so maybe a person was born with a heart congenital abnormality. They lived for a certain period of life maybe 1 or 2 years of age and then unfortunately died. There are also some tumors and cancers that are very high in the cause of death.

00:47 Homicides as well as heart disease also relate to causes of death from years 1-4. The heart disease causes of death are not the ones that you're probably thinking of like coronary artery disease. These are more inherent abnormalities such as problems with the conduction pathway or even some physical abnormalities such as a hole in the heart. As you move to higher ages such as in between about 5-14, still the number 1 cause of death is motor vehicle accidents and and accidents in general. Cancers still are high and this could be a cancer such as leukemia once that you see associated with children. Brain cancer sometimes as well. There is also still a notion of homicides. There are also some congenital abnormalities that don't cause lethality until a little bit later in life but now you start to bring in other things like suicide starting to reach the list of most likely causes of death. As one continues up to be in the later adult adolescents to early adults, still the leading cause of death is related to accidents and motor vehicle accidents. Homicides remain high but suicide is climbing. Malignancies are dropping a little bit in terms of their prevalence from a least point of view. Heart disease though is still high as a cause of death. As a clinician, it's very important to keep in mind the leading causes of death of each of your patients at their various age levels.

02:40 This gives you insight into what kinds of things to try to prevent. So let's say accidents and motor vehicle accidents are part of that. Maybe having certain safety features asking about that during your particular time and you're visiting with your particular client can be helpful. Also being aware of what type of congenital abnormalities might be most likely to be present at that time will also give you more insight into your patient's health.