Overview

Crude, cause-specific death rates differ by sex, although the three leading causes were ranked the same in male and females in 1997 (Table M12). Diseases of the heart, cancer, and stroke ranked first, second, and third, respectively, as leading causes of death in both males and females. Unintentional injuries was the fourth leading cause of death in males, but ranked eighth as a cause of death in females. Other causes which had a relatively varying impact on males and females were pneumonia/influenza (a rank of seven in males and five in females); HIV infection (a rank of eight in males and eleven in females); septicemia (a rank of ten in males and seven in females); and artery, arterioles, and capillary disease (a rank of thirteen in males and ten in females).

Crude death rates and rankings of various cause groups also differed between black and white races (Table M13). The two leading causes of death within each group were the same: heart disease and cancer, in that order. HIV infection was the third leading cause of death among blacks, but ranked fourteenth among whites. Other conditions with major differences in death rates and ranking between the races were homicide and legal intervention (tenth among blacks and tied with anemias for 20th among whites); COPD (fourth among whites and eighth among blacks); and artery, arterioles, and capillary disease (tenth among whites and fourteenth among blacks).

Age-Adjusted Death Rates

Differences in the age distribution of populations affect crude, cause-specific death rates. Age-adjusted rates eliminate the effects of age upon death rates between different populations. Death rates for 1997 for the total population, for males and females, and for whites and blacks were age-adjusted (Table M14). When adjusted for the age distribution of the population, cancer becomes the leading cause of death, heart disease the second leading cause, and unintentional injuries the third in the state=s total population. Cause-specific death rates among blacks were consistently higher than the respective rates for whites in each of the total population=s ten leading causes of death. Cause groups with high ratios of black to white age-adjusted death rates were HIV infection (10.6), diabetes (2.5), nephritis/nephrosis (2.5), and septicemia (2.3). Age-adjusted death rates for males were higher than comparable rates in females for each of the ten leading causes of death in the total population. Cause groups with high ratios of male to female age-adjusted death rates were unintentional injuries (2.9), HIV infection (2.1), and heart disease (1.8).

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