NCHStats

In the United States, Illinois ranks 13th in deaths from kidney disease.  The state also has a higher homicide and infant mortality rate than the rest of the country.

However, among the 10 leading causes of death in the U.S., Illinois has mortality rates that are lower than the U.S. rate for the following causes: chronic lower respiratory diseases, accidents, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, and suicide.

Mental health problems are common chronic conditions in children.  Medication is often prescribed to treat the symptoms of these conditions. Few population-based studies have examined the use of prescription medication to treat mental health problems among younger as well as older school-aged children.

A new NCHS report describes the sociodemographic characteristics of children aged 6–17 years prescribed medication or taking medication during the past 6 months for emotional or behavioral difficulties, and describes parental reports of the perceived benefit of this medication.

• Seven and one-half percent of children aged 6–17 years used prescribed medication during the past 6 months for emotional or behavioral difficulties.
• A higher percentage of children insured by Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program used prescribed medication for emotional or behavioral difficulties than children with private health insurance or no health insurance.
• A higher percentage of children in families having income below 100% of the poverty level used prescribed medication for emotional or behavioral difficulties than children in families at 100% to less than 200% of the poverty level.
• More than one-half of children who used prescribed medication for emotional or behavioral difficulties had a parent report that this medication helped the child “a lot.”

During 2008–2012, 29.9% of adults 18 years or older currently employed in construction and 28.2% of those currently employed in mining were current smokers. Adults currently employed in construction were more likely than adults currently employed in manufacturing (23.3%), transportation/warehousing/utilities (23.2%), trade (22.0%), agriculture/forestry/fishing (18.6%), services (16.9%), or health care/social assistance (16.0%) to be current smokers.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6316a12.htm?s_cid=mm6316a12_e

Among adults aged 25 or older in 2012, 26.5% of those who did not graduate from high school and 26.4% who had a high school diploma or GED were current smokers, compared with 19.7% who had attended some college and 7.9% with a college degree. In contrast, 64.2% of college graduates were current regular drinkers, compared with 52.3% of adults with some college, 47.3% of high school graduates or GED recipients, and 35.3% of adults who did not finish high school.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6315a8.htm?s_cid=mm6315a8_e

Complementary health approaches are defined as “a group of diverse medical and health care interventions, practices, products, or disciplines that are not generally considered part of conventional medicine.”  They range from practitioner-based approaches, such as chiropractic manipulation and massage therapy, to predominantly self-care approaches, such as nonvitamin, nonmineral dietary supplements, meditation, and yoga. A new report presents estimates of the four most commonly used complementary health approaches among adults aged 18 and over in nine geographic regions, using data from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey adult alternative medicine supplement.

• Use of nonvitamin, nonmineral dietary supplements (17.9%) was greater than any other complementary health approach used by U.S. adults in 2012.
• The use of practitioner-based chiropractic or osteopathic manipulation was nearly twice as high in the West North Central region as in the United States overall.
• Use of nonvitamin, nonmineral dietary supplements was highest in the Mountain, Pacific, and West North Central regions.
• Use of yoga with deep breathing or meditation was approximately 40% higher in the Pacific and Mountain regions than in the United States overall.

Iowa has mortality rates that are lower than the United States rate in firearm deaths, homicide and drug poisoning deaths.  The state also has the 5th lowest mortality rate for kidney disease and ranks 11th  in percent of births to unmarried mothers.

However, Iowa has mortality rates that are higher than the U.S. for chronic lower respiratory disease and Alzheimer’s disease.  The state is also tied with the U.S. rate in suicides.

Welcome to this edition of Statcast, a quarterly presentation of data highlights from the National Center for Health Statistics.  This edition covers the period January through March, 2014.
In 2012, 53,635 babies were born outside of a hospital in the U.S., including over 35,000 births that occurred in the home.  Just over 1 percent of all births in 2012 occur outside a hospital, compared to 44% in 1940.

Today, health care in America continues to undergo major changes towards modernization.  In 2013, 78% of office-based physicians used some type of electronic health record system in their practice –  up from 18% in 2001.

NCHS continues to track changes in the prevalence of diseases and chronic conditions .  New data from the National Health Interview Survey show that asthma prevalence in the U.S. dropped sharply during the first nine months of 2013.

A January QuickStat authored by statistician Jiaquan Xu documented that over the past decade, there were an average of 430 deaths each year in the U.S. from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.

NCHS also published a study in Pediatrics which showed that coffee now accounts for nearly 25% of all caffeine intake among American youth, more than twice as much as a decade earlier.  And soda, which accounted for 62% of all caffeine intake in 2000, now accounts for 38% of caffeine intake.

Fact or Fiction.  Is the obesity epidemic in the U.S. leveling off?.   Answer:  IT DEPENDS ON THE GROUP.  For most age, gender and race/ethnic groups, obesity has not changed significantly over the past decade.   However, obesity has declined slightly over the last decade for children ages 2 to 5 – but has increased sharply for older women age 60 and up.

Drowning is the third leading cause of death from unintentional injury worldwide, accounting for 7% of all injury-related deaths according to 2004 data from the World Health Organization.  Previous reports indicated that, although the death rate from unintentional drowning for persons aged 0–19 years decreased in the United States, drowning had become the major cause of death from unintentional injury among children aged 1–4 years.  To facilitate injury prevention programs, A new NCHS report analyzed mortality data from the National Vital Statistics System from 1999 through 2010 to provide more detailed information on characteristics and patterns of unintentional drowning deaths, including recent trends and drowning by day of week, age group, sex, and place of incident.

Key Findings from the Report:

• From 1999 through 2010, a total of 46,419 deaths from unintentional drowning (including boating) occurred in the United States, an average of 3,868 deaths per year.
• Drowning death rates decreased over time for all age groups except for adults aged 45–84.
• The average daily number of deaths from unintentional drowning on a weekend day was 48% higher than that on a weekday (13.8 versus 9.3 deaths).
• Since 2005, unintentional drowning has replaced motor vehicle traffic incidents as the leading cause of death from unintentional injury for boys aged 1–4 years.
• Drowning occurred most often in a bath tub for persons under 1 year of age and for adults aged 85 and over, in a swimming pool for children aged 1–4 years, and in natural water for persons aged 5–84 years.