Faculty Collaboration Database

The uncounted dead--American civilians dying overseas. Public Health Rep 1992;107(2):155-9

Date

03/01/1992

Pubmed ID

1561296

Pubmed Central ID

PMC1403624

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-0026653013 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   57 Citations

Abstract

The Federal Government, U.S. physicians, their patients who travel, insurance companies, the travel industry, and multinational corporations should know the health hazards facing Americans overseas. However, the deaths overseas of almost 5,000 Americans every year have never been analyzed. A previously unreported, unexamined data source is analyzed by cause, sex, age, length of stay, and country of death of Americans dying overseas. The major findings are 1. Most Americans who die overseas die in the developed countries of Western Europe, where most Americans live or visit. The patterns of deaths in these countries are similar to death patterns in the United States. 2. Surprisingly, the deaths of Americans in less developed countries are not from infectious and tropical disease, as many health professionals would expect, but are from chronic diseases, injuries, suicides, and homicides. The importance of these findings for the Federal Government, travelers' clinics, insurance companies, multinational corporations, and Americans living and traveling overseas is discussed.

Author List

Baker TD, Hargarten SW, Guptill KS

Author

Stephen W. Hargarten MD, MPH Professor in the Emergency Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Adult
Aged
Cause of Death
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Mortality
Travel
United States