Leap in death rate of SA youngsters

File photo/Independent Media

File photo/Independent Media

Published Jul 1, 2015

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Pretoria - Young black South Africans are more likely to die of natural causes, while the percentage of whites who die of unnatural causes is higher.

The number of young South Africans who died increased from 57 000 in 1997 to 77 822 in 2013, according to new research released by Statistics SA.

 

In a report on the morbidity and mortality rates among young South Africans in 2013, black and coloured youth had the highest mortality rate with the black mortality rate five times that of the white population group.

There were fewer deaths among young white South Africans than other groups within the 15 to 35 year-old group.

Overall, most of the deaths of young people were from natural causes, with less than a third of those who died, dying from unnatural causes.

However, among whites (57%) and Indian youth (54%), the percentage of deaths from unnatural causes was significantly higher.

Natural causes are described as deaths primarily attributed to an illness or an internal malfunction of the body not directly influenced by external forces. Unnatural causes include homicide, suicide, workplace accidents, motor vehicle accidents, violent deaths, falls, poisoning or overdoses, and drowning or water deaths.

Young women were also less likely to die of unnatural causes than young men. The research found that the death rate of young men due to unnatural causes was 43 percent, compared with just 10 percent for women. Most of the young women who died during the period under consideration died from natural causes.

 

The research found that more young people had died in KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape compared with other provinces.

In Gauteng, 70 percent of the deaths were from natural causes, in Limpopo 78 percent. The Western Cape had the highest death rate from unnatural causes at 49 percent, an indication of the level of violence experienced.

Deaths due to the external cause of accidental injury was highest among coloured youth between the ages of 15 and 29 years, accounting for more than half of deaths in this group.

Communicable diseases, non-communicable diseases and external causes of accidental injury were other causes of death among the youth of the country.

Deaths due to non-communicable diseases among the black population group were the lowest between ages 15 to 29.

The report found that death due to the external cause of accidental injury declined with increasing age.

By age 30, most young black South Africans were more likely to die from non-communicable diseases than from external causes such as accidental injury.

About 17 percent and 19 percent of coloured youth in the age group 15 to 19 died from communicable and non-communicable diseases.

According to the report, young people worldwide were faced with great health risks, including physical and psychological trauma from sexual abuse, gender-based violence and other forms of accidents.

They face substantial challenges such as high unemployment rates, high HIV infection rates with a number of young people heading households, the UN Population Fund said in a report.

Other risks included sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies and other related complications.

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