| Methamphetamine
use was identified as a preventable factor in one out of every five maltreatment
deaths of a child last year, according to a report released today by the Arizona
Childhood Fatality Review Team.
In 2004, there were 40 child
deaths associated with maltreatment, and drug or alcohol use was noted to be a
factor in 55 percent of the maltreatment deaths.
What’s more, the Review
Team found that drug and alcohol abuse was the most frequently identified factor
associated with all preventable childhood deaths last year. The majority of
homicides, and one fourth of the suicide and motor vehicle crash deaths also
involved drugs or alcohol.
“Substance abuse cuts
across age, class, gender, ethnic and racial lines,” ASU professor and Child
Fatality Team chair Dr. Mary Rimsza said.
The Child Fatality team
recommends several strategies to combat the problem, including increased
availability of substance abuse treatment programs for parents and strengthening
measures to decrease accessibility to amphetamine precursors (such as
pseudoephedrine) in retail stores.
The mission of the Arizona
Child Fatality Review Program is to reduce child fatalities by identifying
preventable child deaths through case reviews. A child’s death is considered
to be preventable if an individual or the community could reasonably have done
something that would have changed the circumstances that led to the child’s
death.
Of the 1,031 total deaths in
2004 reviewed for the report, 30 percent were determined to be preventable.
“Every death of a child in
Arizona is a profound loss to parents, family and the community,” Arizona
Department of Health Services Director Susan Gerard said. “The child fatality
review process is an opportunity to learn about the causes and circumstances of
child death in order to prevent deaths in the future.”
In other findings:
- The most common natural
cause of death was prematurity, which resulted in 271 deaths in 2004.
- 20 percent (204) of
childhood fatalities in 2004 resulted from an accidental injury.
- 31 drowning deaths of
children occurred in 2004.
- Use of drugs or alcohol
contributed to 10 percent (102) of all child deaths in Arizona.
- Lack of adequate supervision
contributed to the deaths of 79 children.
- Motor vehicle crashes
resulted in the deaths of 132 children in Arizona.
- Of those 132 children, 64
victims were not properly restrained.
A copy of the full report is
available on the Web at http://www.azdhs.gov/phs/owch/cfr.htm.
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