Report examines racial differences in nursing homes

In 2004, 11% of the 1.3 million nursing home residents aged 65 and over in the United States were black. Recent research suggests that black nursing home residents may be more likely than residents of other races to reside in facilities that have serious deficiencies, such as low staffing ratios and greater financial vulnerability. The National Center for Health Statistics released a report today examining differences observed between elderly black nursing home residents and residents of other races in functioning and resident-centered care. The chart below features one of the findings in the report:

For more, visit the report at www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db25.pdf.

Most dangerous states to be riding in a car this holiday weekend

Are you driving to your Thanksgiving dinner this weekend? Beware that your risk while rolling down the highway may be higher or lower depending on the state in which you are traveling. When it comes to dying in a car accident, some states are more deadly than others, and the ones at the top may surprise you. See the chart, Car Occupant Fatalities by State, 2006, below:

Have late preterm births increased among mothers of all ages?

Late preterm birth rates have risen among mothers of all ages from 1990 to 2006, including teenage mothers (up 5 percent). Among mothers age 25 years and over, late preterm birth rates increased by more than 20 percent from 1990 to 2006. Younger (under age 20 years) and older (40 years and over) mothers are the most likely to have a late preterm baby.

For more trends in late preterm births in the United States, visit the NCHS Data Brief at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db24.pdf.

Nearly 1 in 5 School-Aged Children Have Some Kind of Basic Functioning Difficulty

A new report from the National Center for Health Statistics shows that children with and without functioning difficulty differ greatly in their use of educational and health care services. This report presents estimates of basic actions difficulty, which includes difficulties related to sensory, motor, cognitive, and emotional or behavioral functioning, in U.S. children aged 5–17 years based on questions from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Here are some results:

• Approximately 18% of children aged 5–17 had basic actions difficulty in one or more of the following domains of functioning: sensory, movement, cognitive, or emotional or behavioral.
• The percentage of children with difficulty in specific domains varied: 3% had sensory difficulty, 2% movement difficulty, 9% cognitive difficulty, and 10% emotional or behavioral difficulty.
• From 2001 through 2007, the percentage of children aged 5–17 with basic actions difficulty remained stable at about 18%.

In addition, income was influential. Poor children (3%) were more likely to have movement difficulty than children who were not poor (2%). See the chart below.

For more information please visit http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr019.pdf.

Infant mortality – Where does the U.S. stand?

In 2005, the latest year that the international ranking is available for, the United States ranked 30th in the world in infant mortality, behind most European countries, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and Israel.

The United States international ranking in infant mortality fell from 12th in the world in 1960, to 23rd in 1990 to 29th in 2004 and 30th in 2005. After decades of decline, the United States infant mortality rate did not decline significantly from 2000 to 2005.

 

For more, visit http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db23.htm.

Breast cancer deaths – A state-by-state basis

Except for skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer among American women. Breast cancer is the number one cause of cancer death in Hispanic women. It is the second most common cause of cancer death in white, black, Asian/Pacific Islander, and American Indian/Alaska Native women. However, in the United States, incidence of breast cancer has decreased significantly by 2.2% per year from 1999 to 2005 among women, and deaths from breast cancer have decreased significantly by 1.8% per year from 1998 to 2005 among women. However, age-adjusted death rates from breast cancer vary by state:

For more trends and statistics by state, visit http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/stats_states.htm.

For more breast cancer statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, visit http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/breast/statistics/.

10 Leading Causes of Violence-Related Injury Deaths – Suicide Is Leading Killer

10 Leading Causes of Violence-Related Injury Deaths in the United States in 2006, for all races, both sexes, and all ages.

Produced By: Office of Statistics and Programming, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Data Source: National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), National Vital Statistics System.

Pregnancy rates decrease in United States

In 2005, an estimated 6,408,000 pregnancies resulted in 4.14 million live births, 1.21 million induced abortions, and 1.06 million fetal losses. The 2005 pregnancy rate of 103.2 pregnancies per 1,000 women aged 15–44 years is 11 percent below the 1990 peak of 115.8. The teenage pregnancy rate dropped 40 percent from 1990 to 2005, reaching an historic low of 70.6 per 1,000 women aged 15–19 years.

For more, visit http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr58/nvsr58_04.pdf

Health insurance stats – down to basics…

In 2008, 43.8 million people of all ages(14.7%) were uninsured at the time of interview. After adjusting for age and sex, the percentage uninsured at the time of interview was 30.7% for Hispanics, 10.4% for the non-Hispanic white population, and 16.0% for the non-Hispanic black population. The percentage of people under age 65 with no health insurance coverage remained stable during 1990–2007, after increasing from 1978 to 1990.

Increase in poisonings from opioid painkillers

NCHS recently released the report titled “Increase in Fatal Poisonings Involving Opioid Analgesics in the United States, 1999-2006.” This report shows the explosion of fatal poisonings from opioid painkillers over the past 7 years. For example, from 1999 through 2006, the number of fatal poisonings involving opioid analgesics more than tripled from 4,000 to 13,800 deaths. Opioid analgesics were involved in almost 40% of all poisoning deaths in 2006.The differences among states is also striking:

For more information, visit the report at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db22.htm.