Examining Death Rates Across America

Experts Map Out The Highest And Lowest Death Rates By County

(WebMD)  Death favors some parts of the U.S. more than others, and it's been that way for at least 35 years, a new study shows.

"There's no easy way to explain, so far, how death is rooted in place. But place matters; that's clearly the case," Mississippi State University's Jeralynn Sittig Cossman, PhD, says in a news release.

Cossman and colleagues report persistent variation in death rates among the nation's counties from 1968 to 2002.

During that time, death rates were higher than the national average in some counties in Nevada and in the South, and lower than average in some counties in the Upper Great Plains region.

Migration trends, such as young people leaving rural counties, doesn't fully account for the findings.

For instance, the Upper Great Plains has experienced hard economic times and young people leaving for other parts of the country, but the region's death rates are still lower than other regions.

It will take more work to figure out how much of the trend is due to people's behavior and how much is due to their environment.

Cossman's study appears in December's edition of the American Journal of Public Health.

This poll is incorrect, they left out the No. 1 cause of death in the United States---Medical Intervention.

[alice135]

AMEN!!!

[grammawhamma]

So, in other words, this so called study was inconclusive and needs another study. I wish they would do a study on how much all these "studies" cost.