Drownings, child neglect and firearms contributed to the increase in numbers infant death in Arizona through 2021, marking the highest rate of child deaths in 10 years, according to the state’s annual report.
A review released earlier this month by the state’s Child Mortality Review Program said Arizona’s child mortality rate rose 4.7% from 51 deaths per 100,000 children in 2020 to 53.4 deaths per 100,000 children in 2021. year, reports The Arizona Republic.
Last year, 863 children died in Arizona, up from 838 the year before.
Nearly half of last year’s deaths were preventable, according to the report’s authors, who based their analysis on reviews of death certificates, autopsy reports, hospital records, law enforcement reports and any other relevant documents that shed light on the cause of the childhood illness. death
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Arizona’s child death rate from drowning and abuse or neglect has “increased dramatically” since 2020, the report says. Child drownings doubled from 22 deaths in 2020 to 44 deaths in 2021, and the most common was drowning the cause of death of children between the ages of 1 and 4, according to the report.
In 2021, the number of child deaths increased in the state of Arizona. Compared to previous years, the number of deaths from drowning, neglect, abuse, alcohol and drugs has increased.
“We were very surprised to see how many drownings we had. This category has been in decline for many years, but now it has increased again. It was very alarming,” said Dr. Mary Ellen Rimza, a pediatrician and chair of the Arizona committee. State Child Death Team. “It’s very tragic how this can happen so quickly in situations where people have a pool in their backyard.”
128 children died in Arizona abuse or neglect in 2021 compared to 95 such deaths in 2020.
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“Most of them are not abuse. This is neglect. And that’s why I think we need to consider the situations in which neglect occurs,” Rymsha said. “Some of it’s not intentional neglect, it’s neglect because they don’t have money for housing, for childcare, so they’re in dangerous childcare situations.”
Rimza noted that substance use played a role in more than half of child abuse or neglect deaths in 2021, a factor that in some cases may have related to COVID-19. Numerous reports and studies show that drug and alcohol use has increased during the pandemic, among other things, due to stress and isolation.
