Richmond, Va. (Newsradiowrva.com) - An editorial, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and co-authored by VCU professors Steven Woolf and Elizabeth Wolf, reports that, over the last two years, child and teen mortality rates in the US have seen their biggest jump in decades.
The four main drivers of this leap, according to Woolf, are suicide, homicide, drug overdoses, and car crashes. These four causes have accounted for enough of an increase to offset decades of progress treating pediatric diseases, he said. Woolf described these findings indicative of a mental health crisis, as well as an indicator that more guns are ending up in children's hands.
Some populations are also more effected than others, he said. For example, White people are statistically more effected by drug overdoses (though that gap is rapidly closing), whereas Black people are more frequently effected by gun violence. Woolf said that economic iniquity, mental health resources, and the availability of guns to children must all be addressed to combat this spike in mortality rates.
