O.C. Death Rates Lower, Mortality Study Finds

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Death rates for Orange County residents are far lower than rates for California and the rest of the United States, according to a new study by the county’s Health Care Agency.

From 1984 to 1993, Orange County’s mortality rate was 13% lower than that of California, 29% lower than the nation as a whole.

And while death rates in the United States jumped 2%, Orange County’s rates decreased over the same period by almost 8%.

“We’re talking about a phenomenal difference here,” said Jack Wagner, a county researcher who supervised the study.

Wagner said the study, the county’s first-ever analysis of mortality and its leading causes, concentrated on raw data rather than reasons.

“The trends are good,” he said. “The reasons are beyond the scope of our study.”

County officials now will try to determine causes for the relative good health of local residents, using the same new technology and analysis methods that made the mortality study possible.

Ultimately, Wagner said, the new statistics “are building blocks to help us find more cost-effective ways of providing the best quality health care.”

Over the 10-year span of the study, heart disease was the leading cause of death among Orange County residents, accounting for 47,365 deaths, followed by cancer, which claimed 34,683 lives.

(The other leading causes of death were strokes, accidents and pulmonary diseases.)

Still, cancer rates in the county declined by nearly 10%, while U.S. rates remained steady. And liver disease deaths in Orange County declined even more dramatically, by 29%.

Not all of the news contained in the report was positive, however.

Death from AIDS complications increased by 68% from 1987 to 1993, becoming the most common cause of death among black men 35 and 44 years old.

Pneumonia and influenza death rates in the county also rose significantly, more than 22% over the 10-year span, compared with nearly 11% nationwide.

And homicide increased at a faster rate than any other cause of death.

The 78% increase in homicide rates for Orange County helped make it the leading cause of death among black males 15 to 24 years old.

Homicide death rates among blacks and Hispanics was more than three times greater than among whites, who suffered from higher rates of suicide and liver disease.

Sheila Gill, the author of the mortality study, acknowledged that the increase in homicide rates was higher in Orange County than the increase nationwide, but cautioned that rates remain lower here than in the nation as a whole.