Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 16, 1994 TAG: 9412160067
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ATLANTA LENGTH: Medium
The overall death rate in the United States was the lowest ever in 1992, falling to 504.5 per 100,000 people, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. A total of 2,175,613 people died.
The 1992 infant mortality rate reached an all-time low of 8.5 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared with 8.9 per 1,000 in 1991.
The average life expectancy, the number of years a person born in 1992 could expect to live, climbed to an all-time high of 75.8. That was up from 75.5 in 1991.
Death rates for 12 of the 15 leading killers dropped in 1992, said CDC statistician Ken Kochanek. Deaths from AIDS jumped sharply and there was little or no change in the rates of death from diabetes and kidney disease.
``Things look very good,'' Kochanek said. ``Unfortunately, the main increase was in HIV,'' the virus that causes AIDS.
``HIV is definitely holding back bigger gains in life expectancy,'' he said.
The death rate for AIDS jumped 11.5 percent. AIDS, which killed 33,566 Americans in 1992, rose a notch to become the eighth-leading cause of death that year.
The CDC expects the AIDS death rate to jump even higher for 1993, in part because of a change in the government's definition of the disease.
Overall, death rates for the six leading causes of death - heart disease, cancer, stroke, lung disease, accidents and pneumonia-influenza - all dropped in 1992. Adjusted for age, the death rate for heart disease, the nation's No. 1 killer, fell 2.6 percent from 1991.
The biggest drop - a 7.7 percent decline - came in the rate for atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries.
\ HOW WE DIE
The 10 leading causes of death and their 1992 mortality rate per 100,000 people:
1. Heart disease, 144.3
2. Cancer, 133.1
3. Stroke, 26.2
4. Lung disease, 19.9
5. Accidents, 29.4
6. Pneumonia, influenza, 12.7
7. Diabetes, 11.9
8. AIDS, 12.6
9. Suicide, 11.1
10. Homicide, 10.5
by CNB