Heart disease (699,659) remained the top reason for death, followed by cancer (607,790), unintentional injuries (218,064) — which includes drug overdoses and car accidents — and COVID-19 (186,702).
However, the death rate in 2022 decreased by 5.3 percent, from 879.7 per 100,000 persons in 2021 to 832.8.
Overall, COVID-19-associated death rate among males (76.3) was higher compared with that among females (49.8).
It also decreased from 2021 to 2022 among groups more than 15 years of age, while the rate increased for all age groups under 15 years. However, the CDC has not given the reason behind this.
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Rise in heart disease cases may be due to COVID-19, as several studies have pointed out the increased risk for cardiovascular diseases for at least a year after recovery.
“The death rate went down by a lot, but we also want to emphasize we’re not out of the woods here,” Dr. Robert Anderson, the chief of the mortality statistics branch at the National Center for Health Statistics, was quoted as saying by the New York Times.
“There are still a lot of people who died, and we’re still seeing deaths in 2023 as well,” Anderson added.
Source: IANS
