PREVENTABLE CHILD AND YOUTH DEATHS

This indicator reports the number of deaths from unintentional and intentional injuries, including suicide and homicide. Leading causes of death by age group are also identified.

The death of every child is a tragedy for family and friends and a loss to the community. Along with the direct impact of a child’s death, the child death rate in a community can be an important indicator for public health advocates and policymakers. A high rate can point to underlying problems such as violence in neighborhoods or inadequate child supervision. Unintentional childhood mortality due to injury is strongly inversely related to median income and thus, a solid indicator of poverty. It can also point to health and social inequalities such as access to health care or safe places to play. Since children are much more likely to die during the first year of life (infancy) than they are at older ages, trends in infant mortality are discussed separately (page 18).

• There were 122 deaths for children ages 1 to 19 years in Orange County in 2017.

• Orange County’s overall injury death rate for children decreased 11.7% from a rate of 9.4 per 100,000 children ages one to 19 years in 2008 to 8.3 per 100,000 children in 2017, which is lower than California’s rate of 10.8 in 2017.

• The unintentional injury death rate (e.g., accidental poisoning, motor vehicle accident or drowning) decreased 9.8% from a rate of 6.1 per 100,000 children in 2008 to 5.5 per 100,000 children in 2017.

• Despite this decrease, unintentional injuries accounted for the highest average number (36 per year) and rate (4.8 per 100,000) of all injury deaths to children from 2015 to 2017, followed by cancer (22 per year) and suicide (15 per year).

• Suicide rates for children are higher than 2008 levels at a rate of 1.6 per 100,000 children in 2017.

• Over half, or 53.3%, of all child and youth deaths were among the older teen age group (ages 15 to 19).

• The male mortality rate decreased 18.3% from 26.2 per 100,000 in 2016 to 21.4 per 100,000 in 2017. A similar trend was seen among the female mortality rate decreasing 19.9% between 2016 and 2017 (13.6 vs. 10.9, per 100,000).

• White youth had a higher mortality rate in 2017 (20.2 per 100,000) when compared to 2013 (18.2 per 100,000).

• Hispanic and Asian/Pacific Islander youth had lower injury death rates in 2017 when compared to 2013 (6.3 vs. 5.5, respectively).

• Percentage of overall deaths related to injury by race/ethnicity in 2017: White (48.9%), Hispanic (55.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (50%).

Injury, Unintentional Injury, Suicide and Homicide, Rate Per 100,000 Children, One to 19 Years Old 2009

Death Rates Due to Injury Among Children, One to 19 Years Old, by Race/Ethnicity, 2013 to 2017

Leading Causes of Death for Children One to 19 Years Old, by Age Group and Number of Deaths, 2015-2017 FIRST LEADING