Category Archives: Global health trends

Preterm birth is now the leading cause of death globally for children under age 5

Posted on January 4, 2015 by colinmathers

For the first time in history, the complications of preterm birth outrank all other causes as the world’s number one killer of young children. This was the main finding of a paper we published in the Lancet in 2014 (https://colinmathers.com/2014/10/03/ending-preventable-child-deaths-by-2030/).

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Why are death rates falling at older ages — will these trends continue?

Posted on November 7, 2014 by colinmathers

Life expectancy at age 60 years has improved steadily in the past three decades in developed countries and in many developing countries. A paper written with colleagues Gretchen Stevens, Ties Boerma, Richard White and Martin Tobias, published in the Lancet … Continue reading →

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Ending preventable child deaths by 2030

Posted on October 3, 2014 by colinmathers

Trend data for causes of child death are crucial to inform priorities for improving child survival by and beyond 2015. With academic collaborators at Johns Hopkins University, London School of Hygiene and Tropical medicine and Edinburgh University, we have just … Continue reading →

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Premature death can be reduced by 40% in 20 years!

Posted on September 22, 2014 by colinmathers

A paper by 16 international co-authors published last Friday in the Lancet, suggests that, with sustained international efforts, the number of premature deaths could be reduced by 40% over the next two decades (2010 – 2030), halving under – 50 … Continue reading →

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Child death rates falling faster – annual number of deaths halved since 1990

Posted on September 18, 2014 by colinmathers

The United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN-IGME) released new data this week showing that under-five mortality rates have dropped by 49% between 1990 and 2013. The average annual reduction has accelerated – in some countries it has … Continue reading →

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Global patterns of violence against children

Posted on September 18, 2014 by colinmathers

The recently released UNICEF report on violence against children used our estimates of child homicide rates for year 2012 from the WHO Global Health Observatory. Of course, these estimates are uncertain for countries without good death registration data. We also … Continue reading →

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Preventing suicide: A global imperative

Posted on September 4, 2014 by colinmathers

More than 800 000 people die by suicide every year, according to WHO’s first global report on suicide prevention, published today. Some 75% of suicides occur in low- and middle-income countries. Globally, suicide rates are highest in people aged 70 … Continue reading →

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The decline of war as a cause of human mortality

Posted on August 17, 2014 by colinmathers

With recent events in Iraq, Syria, Gaza and parts of Africa, and shortly after the century in which millions were killed Stalin, Hitler, and Mao, Steven Pinker’s claim that the human impact of war and conflict has been diminishing may … Continue reading →

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The long-term decline of violence and global homicide rates

Posted on August 14, 2014 by colinmathers

I have just finished reading Steven Pinker’s book “ The Better Angels of our Nature: why violence has declined”. This very large book (802 pages) is an ambitious and serious attempt to show that violence in all its forms (nonfatal, … Continue reading →

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How does the life expectancy of Australian men compare to others?

Posted on June 9, 2014 by colinmathers

I was asked by a journalist last week for statistics on trends in life expectancy of Australian men, and in particular, where Australia ranked in the world. So I pulled out our latest life expectancy estimates, published a couple of … Continue reading →

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