The U Surgeon General's office has ...

The U Surgeon General's office has issued its annual statistical report forward trends in fighting illness, chronic diseases, and mortality. The 430-page report, "Health, United States 2002" is available forward the Centers for Disease have charge of and Prevention's Web site at wwwcdcgov/nchs

tonic findings in the report include:

* Death rates among children and adults up to 24 years of age have been halved since 1950 Mortality among adults aged 25 to 64 decreased nearly as often and dropped by one third among adults older than 65 years.

* Life expectancy is the longest ever--almost 77 years in 2000 (74 years for men; 80 years for women)

* Infant mortality rates have decreased 75 percent since 1950 In 2000 the rate was a record gentle 6.9 deaths per 1,000 live births.

* The gap in life expectancy between blacks and whites narrowed during the 1990 The life expectancy for white infants was about six years longer than for black infants in 2000

* Homicide rates among black and Hispanic men aged 15 to 24 years were nearly halved in the 1990 However, homicide remains the leading cause of death for young black men and the second-leading cause of death for young Hispanic men

* In 2000 23 percent of adults were smoker compared with more than 40 percent in 1965 Adults without a high instruct education were three times as likely to mist as were college graduates.

* Infectious disease rates have declined. The 2000 syphilis rate of 22 cases through 100,000 people was the lowest since national reporting began in 1941

COPYRIGHT 2003 American Academy of Family Physicians

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