Synopsis for July 7, 2006

The MMWR is embargoed until Thursday, 12 PM EST.

1. Homicide and Suicide Rates – National Violent Death Reporting System, Seven States, 2003-2004
2. Cigarette Use Among High School Students – United States, 1991-2005
3. Morbidity Surveillance After Hurricane Katrina – Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, September 2005
   

Homicide and Suicide Rates – National Violent Death Reporting System, Seven States, 2003-2004

Reports indicate that intimate partner conflict and mental health disorders are leading contributing factors for suicides, while intimate partner violence and felony-related crimes are leading contributing factors for homicides

. From 2003 to 2004, the suicide and homicide rates for seven states that participated in CDC’s National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) for both years decreased by 6.2 percent and 8.9 percent, respectively. The report indicates that mental health disorders and intimate partner conflicts played the largest roles in suicide, whereas felony crimes and intimate partner violence played the largest role in homicide. CDC’s NVDRS is an analysis of deaths in 13 states from 2003 to 2004. These findings will be used to develop prevention strategies to reduce the number of violent deaths.

Cigarette Use among High School Students – United States, 1991-2005

The national health objective for 2010 of reducing current smoking rates among high school students to 16 percent or less can be achieved only if the annual rate of decline observed during 1997–2003 resumes.

Analyses of the CDC’s National Youth Risk Behavior Surveys (YRBS) found that although lifetime, current, and current frequent cigarette use among high school students was stable or increased during the 1990s and then decreased significantly from the late 1990s to 2003, prevalence was unchanged during 2003–2005. According to the report released today, in 2005, 23 percent of high school students in the U.S. were current smokers, down from 36.4 percent in 1997. Factors that may have contributed to the lack of decline in cigarette use include smaller inflation-adjusted annual increases in the retail price of cigarettes during 2003–2005 compared with 1997– 2001, less funding for comprehensive state-wide tobacco-use prevention programs, substantial increases in tobacco industry expenditures on tobacco advertising and promotion in the United States from $5.7 billion in 1997 to $15.2 billion in 2003, and potentially less youth exposure to mass media smoking-prevention campaigns.

Morbidity Surveillance after Hurricane Katrina – Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, September 2005

To better prepare for future large scale disasters with widespread impact CDC is working with partners to develop standardized guidelines and tools which will allow for a more coordinated surveillance effort and response in any future widespread disasters.

This report summarizes the challenges of conducting national surveillance after hurricane Katrina, focusing on the role of CDC in coordinating surveillance and consolidating and interpreting morbidity data from jurisdictions that used diverse surveillance approaches. Monitoring the health needs of affected populations following Hurricane Katrina’s landfall was a large public health challenge. Data reported to CDC from Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas during September 2005 show that in evacuation centers, chronic conditions were the leading reasons for seeking medical care. Among health-care facilities, injury was the most common reason for seeking care.

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This page last reviewed November 9, 2006

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