Orphanhood and caregiver death among children in the United States by all-cause mortality, 2000-2021.

ABSTRACT: Deaths of parents and grandparent caregivers threaten child well-being owing to losses of care, financial support, safety and family stability, but are relatively unrecognized as a public health crisis. Here we used cause-specific vital statistics death registrations in a modeling approach to estimate the full magnitude of orphanhood incidence and prevalence among US children aged 0-17 years between 2000 and 2021 by cause, child age, race and ethnicity, sex of deceased parent and state, and also accounted for grandparent caregiver loss using population survey data. In 2021, we estimate that 2.91 million children (4.2% of children) had in their lifetime experienced prevalent orphanhood and caregiver death combined, with incidence increasing by 49.5% and prevalence by 7.9% since 2000. Popula

SUBMITTER: Villaveces A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11835524 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature