Most deaths among fathers in the first years after a child’s birth may be preventable, even as fatherhood itself appears linked to a lower overall risk of dying.
ScienceDaily.com
A study of more than 130,000 babies born in Georgia found that hundreds of fathers died within the first five years of their child’s life, and about 60% of those deaths were potentially preventable. Homicide, accidental injuries, suicide, and drug overdoses accounted for most of the preventable deaths, highlighting what researchers call a major blind spot in public health.
Maternal mortality has become widely recognized as an urgent public health problem in the United States, although it took decades for the issue to receive sustained attention. The deaths of fathers, however, have attracted far less scrutiny.
Research has shown that fathers, especially men in their 20s through early 40s, are disproportionately affected by preventable causes of death including suicide, overdose, homicide and accidental injury. Yet researchers have rarely studied these deaths specifically in the context of becoming a parent.