The U.S. is one of the wealthiest and most influential nations in the world. Yet, for some reason, it’s still struggling in meaningful ways with protecting our children. A new study, which analyzed childhood mortality rates of 19 economically similar countries between 1961 and 2010, revealed that, despite making improvements, the U.S. is lagging behind.
Using data from the Human Mortality Database and World Health Organization, researchers were able to determine that childhood mortality in the U.S. has been higher (600,000 excess deaths to be exact) than all comparable nations since the 1980s. Findings were published in the journal Health Affairs.