Child and teen mortality in the US experiences largest increase in decades

Child and adolescent mortality rates in the United States rose by 20% between 2019 and 2021, the largest increase in at least 50 years, according to an editorial published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. These increases follow decades of progress in lowering the rate of death from childhood diseases. The alarming spike in pediatric mortality is primarily due to deaths from homicide, accidental drug overdoses, motor vehicle accidents and suicide among those ages 10 to 19.