United States: American death rates that should not have occurred have seen a years-long upward trend in numbers.
The nationwide avoidable death rate among the population increased by 33 per 100,000 people between 2009 and 2019, according to March 24 research in JAMA Internal Medicine.
During this period, other countries showed declining death rates since members of the European Union decreased their statistics by 24 per 100,000 people.
Members of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development across North America, South America, Europe, and Asia experienced an average death rate reduction of nineteen deaths per hundred thousand population.
Avoidable deaths increased in the U.S. as they dropped elsewhere – https://t.co/MrNRThKq3u – In the United States, deaths that could have been avoided rose, on average, from 2009 to 2019. That’s in contrast to European Union countries.
— Advanced Science (@sciethesis) March 25, 2025
Avoidable Deaths on the Rise in the US
The research concludes that the United States leads the way in health expenses among all high-income nations, although it experienced a rise in preventable fatalities, sciencenews.org reported.
Health system performance depends significantly on a system’s avoidable mortality rate. Healthcare services provided at the right time could have prevented these losses, which are counted as annual deaths within the age range of under 75 years old.
The number of preventable deaths among all US states during 2019 amounted to 280 occurrences per 100,000 population.
The concept of avoidable mortality consists of two components: preventable deaths and treatable deaths.
Why is US Healthcare Falling Behind?
Public health prevention measures have the potential to prevent both vaccine-preventable disease incidents and traffic accidents that result in deaths.
Deaths from infections such as sepsis or appendicitis qualify as treatable mortality since proper medical intervention could potentially save lives.
A number of deaths, such as heart disease alongside cervical cancer and tuberculosis, simultaneously meet criteria as preventable and treatable mortality, sciencenews.org reported.
The research team analyzed state-by-state avoidable death rates in the United States and discovered New York had five deaths per 100,000 people, whereas West Virginia showed 100 avoidable deaths per 100,000 people.