Module Components

• Overview
• Assignments

Topics

• Rankings
• Cancer -- Magnitude of the Problem and Prevention
• Population-based Initiatives to Reduce the Burden of Cancer
• Mental Health and Mental Disorders—Magnitude of the Problem and Prevention
• Population-based Initiatives to Reduce the Burden of Mental Health and Mental Disorders

NRSG 780 - Health Promotion and Population Health

Module 10: Leading Causes of Morbidity and Mortality

Rankings

Mortality

Recall that many of the leading causes of death in the U.S. are heavily influenced by lifestyle risk factors.

Source: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/73/wr/mm7331a1.htm#:~:text=The%20leading%20causes%20of%20death%20in%202023,decreasing%20from%205.7%%20(186%2C552%20deaths)%20in%202022.

Note the shift in rankings for COVID -19 from the preceding two years in the chart below.

 

Age-adjusted Death Rates for the 10 Leading Causes of Death in the US, 2020 and 2021

 

Source: NCHS Data Brief No. 456, December 2022

CDC recently reported that 900,000 Americans die prematurely, before the age of 80, from the five leading causes of death.  It reported that nearly 40% of these deaths could be prevented if all states had the lowest death rate observed for each cause of death. 

These data indicate that:

• 39% of premature deaths from unintentional injuries could be prevented which would prolong approximately 39,000 lives.
• 21% of premature cancer deaths could be prevented which would prolong approximately 84,500 lives
• 39% of premature deaths from chronic lower respiratory diseases could be prevented which would prolong approximately 29,000 lives
• 33% of premature stroke deaths could be prevented which would prolong approximately 17,000 lives

Source: CDC MMWR May 2, 2024 available at https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/73/ss/ss7302a1.htm#F1_down

 

Morbidity

On the international level the World Health Organization identifies the leading causes of disability, measured by disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), noting that back pain and musculoskeletal disorders and major depressive and anxiety disorders have the greatest influence on morbidity. For more information on musculosketal disorders review https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/musculoskeletal-conditions.  For more information on depression review https://www.who.int/health-topics/depression#tab=tab_1