Comparison of COVID-19 with Other Leading Causes of Death in the United States

Importance: Over the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the deaths of more than 550,000 individuals in the United States. It is important for us to understand the risks of COVID-19 in relation to other leading causes of death in order to inform public policy decisions and individual behaviors to help mitigate the highest risks. Objective: Contrast COVID-19 with historic leading causes of death. Design: We present mortality rates and case fatality rates for COVID-19 from March 2020 to March 2021 compared with other historic leading causes of death in the United States. For each risk category and 10-year age groups (0-9, 10-19, …, 70-79, ≥ 80), we report the overall mortality and case fatality rates along with the relative risks compared to COVID-19 as a baseline. There were 16 other leading causes of death considered in this analysis, including: cancer, various subtypes of cancer (brain / nervous system, breast, lung / bronchus, pancreatic, prostate, leukemia, lymphoma), cerebrovascular disease, drug overdoses, firearm homicide, heart diseases, influenza, motor vehicle accidents (overall and without restraint), and suicide. Setting: This is a population-based study. Participants: N/A. Exposures: N/A. Main Outcomes and Measures: Overall mortality (number of deaths / population) and case fatality rates (number of deaths / number of cases). Results: COVID-19 is the third leading cause of death for individuals over 40 years old, with an annual mortality rate of 325 deaths/100K, behind only cancer (385 deaths/100K) and heart disease (412 deaths/100K). In addition, for individuals over 40 years old, the case fatality rate for COVID-19 is greater than the case fatality rate for motor vehicle accidents. For the age group 40-49 years old, the relative case fatality rate for COVID-19 is 1.5 fold (95% CI: [1.3,1.7]) that of motor vehicle accidents, and this relative risk increases to 29.4 fold (95% CI: [23.2, 35.7]) for individuals over 80 years old. Conclusions and Relevance: These results highlight the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic especially for adults over 40 years old and underscore the need for large-scale preventative measures to mitigate risks for these populations. Funding Statement: This work was supported by Nference, Inc. Declaration of Interests: None reported.