Top 5 Leading Causes of Death May 2014 1100 Graham Road Circle Stow, Ohio 44224 (330) 926-5764
Introduction The top 5 causes of death is an important indicator in determining where to focus prevention and intervention. Determining the top causes of death for a particular population can be used as a guide to recommend specific health initiatives. This report utilized Summit County, Ohio local death certificates to gather the research for this report. It should be noted, the accuracy of official death certificates are often taken for granted (Noymer, Penner, & Saperstein, 2011). Although death certificate data may have some limitiations, there is much information that can be retrieved for death certificates. Prior research has revealed that racial and ethnitic idenities are reported inconsistently on death certificates. For example, studies show people who selfreported to the U.S. Census as American Indian or Asian Pacific Islander are sometimes reported on death certificates as white (Murphy, Xu, & Kochanek, 2013). The overall effect of misclassifying deaths in a particular racial or ethnic population results in an underestimation of deaths among Indians/Native Americans, Hispanics/ Latinos, and Asian American/ Pacific Islanders and over reporting deaths for black and white populations Reporting the cause of death can have some variation based on the primary and secondary reasons the person died. The primary cause of death is the disease, situation or events that started the chain of events resulting in death. The secondary cause of death is the complications or consequences of the primary disease. The actual cause of death could be a result of the primary illness. For example, when a person has diabetes his or her chances of having a stroke are 2 to 4 times higher than a person who does not have diabetes (American Diabetes Association, 2013). If the person diagnosed with diabetes has a stroke and dies from complications resulting from the stroke, the cause of death may be recorded as a stroke or diabetes. In order to focus public health initiatives around specific health conditions it is important to know the primary cause of death. This report will display data specific to Summit County, Ohio death records from 2001-2010. In this report, it is recognized that the primary cause of death may not be considered in the data provided in the Summit County death records.
Table 1A: Leading Causes of Death Among All Residents, Summit County, 2001-2012 Total Age- Death Diseases of heart 1 1,316.2 24.5 242.9 194.4 Cancer 2 1,230.6 22.9 227.1 188.2 3 341.1 6.3 63.0 51.6 Stroke 4 317.1 5.9 58.5 46.8 5 200.1 3.7 36.9 34.3 All Causes --- 5,380.2 100.0 993.1 815.7 Table 1B: Leading Causes of Death Among All Residents, United States, 2010 1,2 Total Age- Death Diseases of heart 1 597,689 24.2 193.6 179.1 Cancer 2 574,743 23.3 186.2 172.8 3 138,080 5.6 44.7 42.2 Stroke 4 129,476 5.2 41.9 39.1 5 120,859 4.9 39.1 38.0 All Causes --- 2,468,435 100.0 799.5 747.0
Table 2A: Leading Causes of Death Among Non-Hispanic White Residents, Summit County, 2001-2012 Age- Total Death Diseases of heart 1 1,165.3 24.9 270.0 194.2 Cancer 2 1,076.2 23.0 249.3 188.9 3 312.0 6.7 72.3 53.4 Stroke 4 271.6 5.8 62.9 44.9 5 171.9 3.7 39.8 35.2 All Causes --- 4,685.8 100.0 1,085.6 807.9 Table 2B: Leading Causes of Death Among Non-Hispanic White Residents, United States, 2010 1,2 Total Age- Death Diseases of heart 1 483.973 24.6 241.8 179.9 Cancer 2 460,567 23.4 230.1 176.5 3 122,887 6.2 61.4 46.6 Stroke 4 101,849 5.2 50.9 37.8 5 94,420 4.8 47.2 42.4 All Causes --- 1,969,916 100.0 984.3 755.0
Table 3A: Leading Causes of Death Among Non-Hispanic African American Residents, Summit County, 2001-2012 Age- Total Death Cancer 1 143.5 22.2 185.5 211.6 Diseases of heart 2 142.0 21.9 183.5 213.5 Stroke 3 42.6 6.6 55.0 64.9 Diabetes 4 28.8 4.5 37.3 42.9 5 27.8 4.3 36.0 42.5 All Causes --- 647.8 100.0 837.2 958.5 Table 3B: Leading Causes of Death Among Non-Hispanic African American Residents, United States, 2010 1,2 Total Age- Death Diseases of heart 1 68,215 24.1 173.0 229.5 Cancer 2 65,276 23.0 165.5 208.8 Stroke 3 15,833 5.6 40.1 54.3 Diabetes 4 11,996 4.2 30.4 39.6 5 11,853 4.2 30.1 32.4 All Causes --- 283,438 100.0 718.7 920.4
Table 4A: Leading Causes of Death Among Non-Hispanic Asian or Pacific Islander Residents, Summit County, 2001-2012 Age- Total Death Cancer 1 5.7 25.6 47.9 78.3 Diseases of heart 2 4.5 20.3 38.0 100.3 Stroke 3 2.1 9.4 17.6 39.8 4 1.8 8.3 15.5 16.1 All Causes --- 22.2 100.0 187.2 380.9 NOTE: Only the top 4 leading causes of death among Non-Hispanic Asian or Pacific Islander residents had at least 10 events. Causes with less than 10 events were not reported due to the instability of rates. NOTE: Death data for Asian or Pacific Islander residents should be interpreted with caution because of the misclassification of race on the death certificate. Table 4B: Leading Causes of Death Among Asian or Pacific Islander Residents, United States, 2010 1,2 Total Age- Death Cancer 1 14,165 27.7 83.4 108.9 Diseases of heart 2 11,490 22.5 67.6 100.9 Stroke 3 3,833 7.5 22.6 33.2 4 2,144 4.2 12.6 15.0 Diabetes 5 1,838 3.6 10.8 15.5 All Causes --- 51,162 100.0 301.1 424.3 NOTE: Death data for Asian or Pacific Islander residents should be interpreted with caution because of the misclassification of race on the death certificate.
Table 5A: Leading Causes of Death Among Hispanic Residents, Summit County, 2001-2012 Age- Total Death Cancer 1 2.3 19.1 26.9 60.4 Diseases of heart 2 1.9 15.7 22.1 52.1 3 1.3 10.9 15.4 22.7 All Causes --- 12.3 100.0 141.5 294.3 NOTE: Only the top 3 leading causes of death among Hispanic residents had at least 10 events. Causes with less than 10 events were not reported due to the instability of rates. NOTE: Death data for Hispanic residents should be interpreted with caution because of the misclassification of ethnicity on the death certificate. Table 5B: Leading Causes of Death Among Hispanic Residents, United States, 2010 1,2 Total Age- Death Cancer 1 31,119 21.5 61.6 119.7 Diseases of heart 2 30,006 20.8 59.4 132.8 3 10,476 7.3 20.8 25.8 Stroke 4 7,274 5.0 14.4 32.1 Diabetes 5 6,556 4.5 13.0 27.1 All Causes --- 144,490 100.0 286.2 558.6 NOTE: Death data for Hispanic residents should be interpreted with caution because of the misclassification of ethnicity on the death certificate. ----------------------------------------- 1 Heron M. : Leading causes for 2010. National vital statistics reports; vol 62 no 6. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2013. 2 Murphy SL, Xu J, Kochanek KD. : Final data for 2010. National vital statistics reports; vol 61 no 4. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2013.
Summary The leading causes of death in Summit County, Ohio are very similar to the leading cause of death throughout the nation. Diseases of the heart, stroke, and cancer are among the leading causes of death across all races. In order to improve the health status of residents in Summit County, Ohio we must address each of these chronic and illnesses. Health projects and/ or initiatives in Summit County should focus educating, preventing and managing the top five causes of death. Collaborative work among community partners would be the ideal way to reduce the number of deaths related to the top five causes. Community awareness campaigns around prevention and managing chronic disease and illness is imperative in reducing the number of deaths.
References American Diabetes Association. (2013). Stroke. Retrieved from http://www.diabetes.org/living-with-diabetes/complications/stroke.html Murphy, L.S., Xu, J., & Kochanek, K.D. (2013). National vital statistics report. National Vital Statistics System, 61 (4), 1-118. Noymer, A., Penner, A.M., & Saperstein, A. (2011). Cause of death affects racial classification on death certificates. PLoS ONE, 6(1), 1-3. Summit County Public Health. (2001-2010). Death Data. Generated January 30, 2014 by Summit County Public Health Office of Epidemiology U.S. Census Bureau. (2010). American Fact Finder: Summit County, OH. Retrieved April 29, 2014 from http://factfinder2.census.gov