Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Drug overdoses and suicides caused American life expectancy to drop in 2017 for the second consecutive year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most notable is the gap between the urban and rural suicide rate.
The Washington Post
Births and birth rates dropped to a 30-year low, not an issue of concern yet, but if the trend continues, the U.S. could join other developed nations that must deal with the consequences of an aging population. Immigration plays an uncertain factor.
NPR: The Two-Way
First the auto companies blamed millennials for not driving enough, and now demographers blame them for the nation's declining birth rate.
The Washington Post
The lead editorial in the December issue of American Journal of Public Health provides the introduction for two research papers on the relationship between bicycling safety and infrastructure expansion in Boston and Vision Zero in U.S. and Sweden.
American Journal Of Public Health
According to preliminary estimates from the National Safety Council, 38,300 people were killed on U.S. roads in 2015, an 8 percent jump from 2014. In fact, the annual increase is the most in half a century. Note that the figure differs from NHTSA's.
National Safety Council
A study published February 9 in the Journal of the American Medical Association points to three reasons for the life expectancy being lower for Americans than in other developed nations. Care to guess what they are?
The Washington Post - Wonkblog
While blame squarely lays with Michigan state officials, agencies, and possibly Gov. Rick Snyder himself, the EPA also played a role by both detecting the cause of the problem but not acting on the reports of improper treatment of river water.
Huffington Post
There's good and bad news to report from the 37-year study. Good news: Decreased child fatal bike crashes, but it results from fewer children biking. Bad news: Increased adult fatal crashes, but it results from an increase in adult male cyclists.
HealthDay News
Teenagers have a lot on their minds, which is not a bad thing, except when it comes to getting behind the wheel. A report released March 25 reveals that six out of ten teen crashes involve driver distraction—400 percent greater than a prior study.
KHOU 11 Houston
Public health was one of the many topics to merge from the American Planning Association's recent national gathering. Here's a look at the proceedings from the conference's Planning Healthy Communities Symposium.
APA Conference Blog