The United States has seen avoidable deaths rise in recent years, while at the same time, other developed countries have experienced reductions.
Avoidable mortalities include both preventable and treatable deaths.
Preventable deaths, like traffic collisions, are those that could, in theory, be averted with improved prevention measures. On the other hand, treatable deaths are those that could have been avoided had appropriate medical care been administered, like for someone suffering from appendicitis who is not treated urgently enough.
In some cases, like heart disease, a death might be attributed to both categories.
The average rate of avoidable deaths in the U.S. rose by 33 per 100,000 people between 2009 and 2019. However, other developed countries saw the figure drop during that same period, according to new details published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Countries in the European Union, for example, experienced a reduction of 24 unavoidable deaths per 100,000 people during that time. Looking at the entire Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which comprises countries from North America, South America, Asia, and Europe, an average decrease of 19 per 100,000 people was recorded.
In 2024, The Dallas Express reported that among a group of 10 developed countries (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States), the U.S. ranked last for health equity, access to care, and outcomes.
Authors of the newest report say that the U.S. experienced a rise in avoidable deaths despite the country spending more on health care than any other developed nation.
Details around avoidable deaths can illustrate how well a country’s health system operates. The metric tallies up the number of deaths each year among those under age 75 that would not have occurred with access to timely healthcare. In the U.S., there were roughly 280 avoidable deaths per 100,000 people in 2019.