The top causes of death among children and teens in the United States are car crashes, firearms, cancer, and suffocation. In 2016 alone, the country lost 20,360 children and teens, 60 percent of whom were lost to preventable injuries.

Children And Teen Deaths

A new study by members of U-M Injury Prevention Center scoured the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s WONDER Database for data on the most common causes of death among children and teens in the United States.

As it turns out, the top cause of death among American youths are car crashes, which claimed the lives of 4,074 youths in 2016. This was followed by gun deaths that claimed 3,143 lives, over 1,800 of which are due to homicide; then cancer which claimed 1,853 lives; and suffocation which claimed 1,430 lives.

Following the top 4 causes of death are drowning, drug poisoning or overdoses, and birth defects.

Role Of Firearms

Compared to car crash deaths, which were cut in half in the past two decades despite remaining at the top of the list, the rate of firearm- or gun-related deaths among youths aged 1 to 19 years old actually remained nearly the same in the last two decades. Such deaths are in fact over 36 times as high as the average rates in 12 other high-income countries.

“Firearm deaths of children and adolescents are an ‘everybody’ problem, not a problem for just a certain population,” said lead author Rebecca Cunningham, specifying that 60 percent of those deaths were due to homicide, 35 percent due to suicide, and less than 1 percent due to mass shootings.

Call For Action

Researchers point out the importance of “prevention science,” as shown by the steady decrease in car crash deaths in recent decades due to massive prevention efforts. As such, they surmise that perhaps prevention efforts led by physicians may also help decrease firearm deaths among the youth.

“Firearm risk to children and adolescents, whether from unintentional or intentional use of a gun, is a serious medical issue that all of us in the profession can help address,” said study co-author Patrick Carter.

The study is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.