Trends and disparities in deaths among young persons in the US during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Retrospective cross-sectional study comparing national mortality registry data across time periods
PubMed 38309641 · doi:10.1016/j.annepidem.2024.01.009
What was done
Retrospective cross-sectional study analyzing U.S. National Vital Statistics System mortality data for individuals aged 1 to 24 years from April 2017 through March 2023. The authors compared pre-pandemic mortality rates with rates during the pandemic overall and stratified by age, sex, race/ethnicity, and leading cause groups.
What was found
Age-adjusted death rates in young persons aged 1–24 years increased by 14.3% during the pandemic. Injury-related causes accounted for 78.2% of the total increase, driven primarily by homicides and unintentional injuries from drug overdoses, firearms, and motor-vehicle traffic crashes. Non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic teens and young adults experienced the largest increases overall and across leading causes.
Why it matters
This study shows that the rise in excess deaths among U.S. children and young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic was predominantly caused by external injuries rather than direct viral infection, disproportionately impacting racial and ethnic minority youth.
Limits
The abstract does not report total sample size (absolute counts of deaths), baseline rates, or confidence intervals. The analysis relies on registry death-certificate coding without individual-level clinical details, and cannot identify the specific socioeconomic or behavioral mechanisms driving the rise in injuries.