MORTALITY

Statistical Overview

There were 74,009 deaths of New Jersey residents in 2002 (Table M3).  This represents a 0.9 percent decrease from 2001.  The crude death rate was 861.5 per 100,000 population and the age-adjusted rate was 808.8 (Table M1 and Figure M1).  This represents a 2.8 percent decrease from the age-adjusted rate in 2001 and a 11.8 percent decrease from the age-adjusted rate in 1992 (Table M1).  The age-adjusted death rate for males was 38.0 percent higher than the rate for females and the age-adjusted death rate for blacks was 31.2 percent higher than the rate for whites in 2002 (Table M2 and Figure M2).  For persons born in New Jersey in 2002, average life expectancy was 78.1 years.  For females, it was 80.4 years and for males it was 75.6 years.  Life expectancy for whites was 78.6 years and 72.9 years for blacks (Table M12 and Figure M8)

Causes of Death

For the first time since 1998, some of the rankings of the ten leading causes of death changed.  Heart disease, cancer, stroke, and chronic respiratory disease (CLRD) remained the four leading causes of death.  Unintentional injuries overtook diabetes as the fifth leading cause of death and septicemia overtook influenza and pneumonia as the seventh leading cause of death.  Kidney disease and Alzheimer’s disease remained the ninth and tenth leading causes of death (Table M13).  These ten causes of death accounted for 80.4 percent of deaths in 2002 (Table M14).  The two leading causes of death among both sexes and all races (heart disease and cancer) accounted for more than half of all deaths.  Stroke was the third leading cause of death for females and fourth for males.  Unintentional injury was the third leading cause of death among males, while it was tenth among females (Table M21).  HIV disease was the fourth leading cause of death among blacks and the nineteenth among whites (Table M22).  CLRD was the fourth leading cause of death among whites but the ninth leading cause among blacks (Table M22). 

The age-adjusted death rate due to cancer was 9.2 percent lower in 2002 than it was in 1997.  Age-adjusted deaths rates for most cancer sites decreased over the time period (Table M24).  In 2002, trachea, lung, and bronchus remained the most common cancer mortality site, followed by cancer of the colon, rectum, and anus and cancer of the breast (Table M24).  Over 56 percent of cancer deaths occurred among those aged 65-84 (Table M25).  In 2002, male age-adjusted death rates were 58.6 percent higher for cancer of the trachea, lung, and bronchus and 33.3 percent higher for cancer of the colon, rectum, and anus than the respective rates for females (Tables M26-M27). 

In 2002, 415 deaths were firearm-related.  Of those, 210 were homicides, 176 were suicides, 28 were accidental, and one was of undetermined intent (Table M32).  The age-adjusted firearm death rate among males was 10 times the rate among females and the rate among blacks was 3.5 times the white rate (Table M33).  Drug-related causes such as mental and behavioral disorders due to psychoactive substance use, accidental overdoses, and intentional poisonings resulted in 884 deaths (Table M34).  Alcohol-related causes accounted for 482 deaths in 2002 (Table M35).  In 2002, the age-adjusted drug-related death rate among males was 2.8 times that of females and the age-adjusted alcohol-related death rate among males was 3.4 times the rate among females (Tables M34-M35).

Infant and Fetal Deaths

The number and rate of infant deaths decreased significantly from 2001.  The number of infant deaths decreased 12.6 percent from 745 to 651 and the rate dropped below 6.0 per 1,000 live births for the first time (Table M43).  The infant mortality rate among black non-Hispanics remained more than three times as high as the rate among white non-Hispanics (Table M44).  More than 72 percent of infant deaths occurred in the neonatal period (within the first 27 days of life).  Infants who were part of a multiple birth were four times more likely to die within the first year of life than singletons.  Mortality was negatively related to birth weight and gestational age.  Infants whose mothers received no prenatal care were seven times more likely to die within the first year of life than those whose mothers received early prenatal care.  Infant mortality rates decreased with increasing maternal age until the 35-39 age group where rates rose again.  Infant mortality rates were twice as high for infants of unmarried mothers versus married mothers and for mothers who smoked during pregnancy versus mothers who did not smoke during pregnancy (Table M47).  More than 60 percent of infant deaths had a medical risk factor reported on their birth certificate.  Incompetent cervix was the most commonly reported medical risk factor among infant death records.  Of newborns whose mothers had an incompetent cervix, 7.3 percent died within the first year of life (Table M48).  Disorders related to short gestation and low birth weight, congenital malformations, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) were the three leading causes of infant deaths in 2002 (Table M49).

The fetal mortality rate and the number of fetal deaths decreased 2.9 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively, from 2001 (Table M43).  As with infant deaths, plurality, low birth weight, short gestation, lack of prenatal care, unmarried mothers, and maternal smoking were each correlated with higher rates of fetal mortality (Table M50).  Fetal deaths were more prevalent than infant deaths among all age groups except for mothers under age 20 (Tables M47 and M50).  The fetal death rate among black non-Hispanics was nearly three times the rate for white and Asian and Pacific Islander non-Hispanics and twice the rate for Hispanics (Table M51). 

The Technical Notes section contains information on sources of data, allocation of data by residence or occurrence, quality of data, racial and ethnic classification, definitions, rates and ratios, and cause of death rankings.