The Lives Lost to Inequities: Avertable Deaths From Neurologic Diseases in the Past Decade

Mortality rates for neurologic diseases are increasing in the United States, with large disparities across geographical areas and populations. Racial and ethnic populations, notably the non-Hispanic (NH) Black population, experience higher mortality rates for many causes of death, but the magnitude of the disparities for neurologic diseases is unclear. The objectives of this study were to calculate mortality rates for neurologic diseases by race and ethnicity and-to place this disparity in perspective-to estimate how many US deaths would have been averted in the past decade if the NH Black population experienced the same mortality rates as other groups.

Mortality rates for deaths attributed to neurologic diseases, as defined by the International Classification of Diseases, were calculated for 2010 to 2019 using death and population data obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Census Bureau. Avertable deaths were calculated by indirect standardization: For each calendar year of the decade, age-specific death rates of NH White persons in 10 age groups were multiplied by the NH Black population in each age group. A secondary analysis used Hispanic and NH Asian populations as the reference groups.

In 2013, overall age-adjusted mortality rates for neurologic diseases began increasing, with the NH Black population experiencing higher rates than NH White, NH American Indian and Alaska Native, Hispanic, and NH Asian populations (in decreasing order). Other populations with higher mortality rates for neurologic diseases included older adults, the male population, and adults older than 25 years without a high school diploma. The gap in mortality rates for neurologic diseases between the NH Black and NH White populations widened from 4.2 individuals per 100,000 in 2011 to 7.0 per 100,000 in 2019. Over 2010 to 2019, had the NH Black population experienced the neurologic mortality rates of NH White, Hispanic, or NH Asian populations, 29,986, 88,407, or 117,519 deaths, respectively, would have been averted.

Death rates for neurologic diseases are increasing. Disproportionately higher neurologic mortality rates in the NH Black population are responsible for a large number of excess deaths, making research and policy efforts to address the systemic causes increasingly urgent.