So I will highlight just a few more points from the Vital Statistics Mortality report from 2006 and then call it a night.
- The rate of deaths per 100,000 persons in 2006 was 776.5 but the rate of death for whites alone was 764.4 and for blacks alone it was 982 - a pretty big difference.
- The diseases with the greatest discrepancy between whites and blacks are as follows:
homicide, hypertension, kidney disease, and diabetes
- When looking at heart disease, cancer and chronic lower respiratory disease, I cannot help but wonder, how many of those are tobacco related. This report does not show the sub causes, but as we know, all of those conditions will be linked to something on a death certificate. My father's, for example, declared cause of death to be myocardial infarction and also listed atrial fibrillation and hypercholesterolemia. SO he had a heart attack related to his erratic heart beat which might have been caused by his high cholesterol related atherosclerosis - I think the atherosclerosis was on there as well.
- According to most predictions, 30% of both heart disease and cancer deaths and 80% of chronic lower respiratory disease mortality is related to tobacco use or exposure. That would be 30% of 631,636 and 559,888 and 80% of 124,583. I can tell you that about 443,000 deaths per year are tobacco related, so do the math and see how close we are.
- Final note: I mentioned yesterday that injuries had specific criteria and classifications. The injury related deaths are determined by intent and manner. So the manner might be poison, firearm, falls, motor vehicle accident and then investigated for whether or not there was purpose or intent. If a person was harmed by a gun, was it an accident or was it intent. If there was intent, was it self intent or something done to another. That helps us differentiate between homicide, suicide and unintentional injuries.
And now those numbers:
189 490 + 167 966 + 99 666 = 457,122 OH that is darn close!
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