Just recently, The Lancet, the world's leading medical journal, completed a study that targeted 50 countries of all different economies and found that mortality is now highest in teenagers and young adults rather than children. The causes for this mortality rate have been due to violence, suicide, and road accidents. The study has shown that mortality due to disease has decreased quite a bit but injury such as violence, suicide, and road accidents is becoming the number one killer for men regionally and young women in rich and Eastern European countries. Violence is a main issue regarding deaths among young men and women. Researchers have discovered that young men between the ages of 15 and 24 are now three times as likely to die a premature death. Doctor Russell Viner states that the teenage years were the healthiest time of our life and it's no longer true. He also says that for developing countries, the switch to cities, urbanization improvement, and social dislocation are also to blame for young people's mortality. Young people's threat to health comes from the behaviors and contexts in which young people surround themselves. After reading this article I am a little surprised to learn that it is not whether a young person is living in poverty, or in areas of access to war and infectious diseases, but that the increased mortality rates have little to do with those factors. It makes sense that disease mortality rates have dropped due to the technological advances in medicine that prevent this from happening. I believe this also makes since due to the fact that if you flip on the news nowadays, it is very likely that you will come across a news report about an act of gang violence or a drunk driving accident. There aren't really technological advances that can prevent suicide, violence, or road accidents. Because of the high mortality rate due to violence, suicide, and road accidents, it is clear that the public is not getting enough exposure to the serious impact of these increasing mortality rates. I believe that the areas around the world that are experiencing this serious impact could benefit from sort of program that acts to prevent youth violence, suicide, and traffic accidents through the promotion of community engagement. It is important to protect the youth of today who will be the adults of tomorrow.
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