Wait, What? White Women Are Dying Prematurely At Higher Rates

Wait, What? White Women Are Dying Prematurely At Higher Rates

For years and years it was said that black women were the ones dying at an increasing rate. Now, the tables has turned, surprisingly it's white women that are dying prematurely.

 Records from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were gathered to break down the information geographically, county by county, by level of urbanization and cause of death. The statistics show decaying health for all white women since the year 2000. The trend was most dramatic for women in the more rural areas. There for every 100,000 women in their late 40s, 228 died at the turn of this century. Today, 296 are dying. And in rural areas, the uptick in mortality was noticeable even earlier, as far back as 1990. Since then, death rates for rural white women in midlife have risen by nearly 50 percent.

The hardest hitting areas of death for midlife white women includes, 21 counties arrayed across the South and Midwest. The death rates for white women has double or worsen since the turn of the century. In Victoria County, Texas deaths among white women from ages 45 to 54 have climbed by 169 percent in that time period. Since then, the death rate climbed from 216 per 100,000 white women to 583. The most common deaths cases of white women is cancer. Another killer among white women is heavy drinking. Deaths of rural white women in their early 50s from cirrhosis of the liver have doubled since the end of the 20th century. Suicides are also on the rise. This caused of death is increasingly rising for white women of all ages and has more than doubled for rural white women ages 50 to 54. Other causes of mortality among white women are: obesity, diabetes, heart attacks, and strokes.

Why are we just hearing about this? Well, researchers noticed the dying white women phenomenon for several years before clearly recognizing what they were seeing. For example, researchers noticed the increase in mortality pronounced among white women of reproductive age not that long ago. In 2014, the increase in the death rate of relatively young white women was right there in the CDC's massive annual report on American health, but it drew no comment in the introductory highlights.

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