American kids are 70 percent more likely to die before adulthood than kids in other rich countries

A new study ranks 20 wealthy countries on childhood deaths. The US comes in last.

By Sarah Kliffsarah@vox.com  Jan 8, 2018, 4:00pm EST

A child born in the United States has a 70 percent greater chance of dying before adulthood than kids born into other wealthy, democratic countries, a new study has found.

The research, published in the journal Health Affairs on Monday, shows that the United States lags far behind peer countries on child health outcomes. It estimates that, since 1961, America’s poor performance accounts for more than 600,000 excess child deaths — deaths that wouldn’t have happened if these kids were born into other wealthy countries.

“In all the wealthy, democratic countries we studied children are dying less often then they were 50 years ago,” Ashish Thakrar, the study’s lead author, said. “But we found that children are dying more often in the United States than in any similar country.”

The study comes out three months after Congress allowed funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program — which provides insurance to nine million low-income kids — to expire. And it builds on data released earlier this year, which finds that overall life expectancy in the United States has declined for the past two years — a troubling trend that hasn’t been seen since the 1960s.

Infants in the US have a 76 percent higher risk of death than in other wealthy nations
Between 2001 and 2010, researchers found that the risk of death in the United States was 76 percent higher for infants than in peer countries. In addition, the US has an infant death rate from extreme prematurity three times that of its peer countries.

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https://www.vox.com/health-care/2018/1/8/16863656/childhood-mortality-united-states