By IANS
New York : The death rate in this city touched an all-time low in 2006, with the number of deaths falling to 55,391 – down from 57,068 in 2005 and 60,218 in 2001.
Mortality declined in eight leading categories, including diabetes, HIV, chronic lung disease and kidney failure. The only leading killer that increased significantly was substance use (up eight percent), Sciencedaily reported, quoting data put out by the city’s health department.
Heart disease and cancer remained the city’s biggest killers, claiming 21,844 lives and 13,116 lives, respectively.
The latest life expectancy figures, based on 2005 data, also bring cheer.
Women’s life expectancy rose by 2.5 months, reaching a record 81.3 years. Male life expectancy held steady at 75.7, while overall life expectancy increased from 78.6 years to 78.7 years.
“New Yorkers are living longer, healthier lives,” said Thomas R. Frieden, NYC Health Commissioner. “But too many New Yorkers are still dying from preventable causes.”
The leading causes of premature death are smoking, high blood pressure and cholesterol, risky sex, alcohol and drug dependency.
The data reveal a steady decline in smoking-related deaths, which have fallen by 11 percent since 2002, while deaths from smoking-induced cardiovascular disease fell by 14 percent.
While overall cancer deaths declined among people under 65 in 2006, the toll from colon cancer rose by 17 percent. But deaths from HIV fell by nearly 15 percent in one year – from 1,419 in 2005 to 1,209 in 2006.
The diabetes toll fell six percent to 1,708 in 2006, after rising by more than four percent a year earlier, but experts take little comfort in the new number.
In 2006, 125,506 babies were born in NYC, an increase of nearly 3,000 over the 2005 total. The 2.3 percent increase fell short of the 3 percent rise seen nationally, but it marked the biggest baby boom the city has seen since 1988.
The data show a continuing decline in the infant mortality rate (the proportion of children who die before their first birthday each year). The citywide rate has fallen by 16.9 percent in the past 10 years, from 7.1 per 1,000 live births in 1997 to 5.9 in 2006.
The figure, however, masks sharp racial and economic disparities. Black babies remain twice as likely to die in the first year of life as white babies, and in the Bronx, one of the nation’s poorest areas, the infant mortality rate was 7.1 deaths per 1,000 births in 2006, up from 6.3 in 2005.