Language

English

Publication Date

1-1-2025

Journal

Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings

DOI

10.1080/08998280.2025.2480979

PMID

40557218

PMCID

PMC12184141

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

4-10-2025

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the leading underlying causes of death across different locations in the USA from 2015 to 2022.

Methods: Data on the leading underlying causes of death in each location of death-including medical outpatient facility or emergency room, medical inpatient facility, medical facility/dead on arrival, decedent's home, hospice facility, and nursing home/long-term care-within the USA in individuals ≥18 years were extracted from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (CDC WONDER) database.

Results: There were 22,236,700 deaths in our studied locations during the study period. Most deaths were in the decedents' homes (34.5%), followed by inpatient medical facilities (31.8%). Malignant neoplasms were the leading cause of death in hospice facilities (32.8%-40.0%) and decedents' homes (25.9%-31.5%), followed by heart disease. Heart disease was the most common cause of death in nursing homes/long-term care facilities (20.0%-23.6%), outpatient or emergency medical facilities (36.5%-44.7%), those dead on arrival at medical facilities (35.4%-40.3%), and inpatient medical facilities (14.3%-20.4%), with COVID-19 becoming the top cause of death in 2020 and 2021 in inpatient medical facilities.

Conclusion: Overall, heart disease and malignant neoplasm were among the top three causes of death in all studied locations in our study period.

Keywords

Death, location, trends

Published Open-Access

yes

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