US lags behind other countries in cutting numbers of preventable deaths

The United States has made slower progress in cutting the number of preventable deaths than other industrialised nations, concludes a study published in Health Affairs.1

The study, which covered the period 1999 to 2007, found that in 2007 the rate of “amenable” or preventable mortality in men under 65—deaths that could have been avoided with timely and effective healthcare—was 56 per 100 000 in the US, whereas the figure was 46 in the United Kingdom, 40 in Germany, and 34 in France. In women the rate was 69 per 100 000 in the US, compared with 53, 50, and 37, respectively.

The UK, …