<p>“Daniel Reardon’s nightmare began at 5:30 a.m. with a call from the University of Maryland police. His 19-year-old son, Danny, had taken part in a fraternity drinking ritual and was unconscious. . . .”</p>
<p>" The dominant finding is that freshmen emerge as the class most likely to make a fatal mistake:</p>
<p> Freshmen die at higher rates from illness, accounting for 40% of undergraduate deaths from natural causes.</p>
<p> They’re more likely to take their own lives; they account for 40% of all undergraduate suicides.</p>
<p> They represent half of all undergraduate deaths from falls from windows, balconies and rooftops."</p>
<p>Freshmen die at higher rates from illness, accounting for 40% of undergraduate deaths from natural causes.</p>
<p>this doesn’t make sense to me at all
are 19 year olds more susceptible to disease than the normal population?
As my kids have gotten older and receive more resistance to bugs etc, they have gotten healthier , not the opposite</p>
<p>Well, they aren’t being compared to the rest of the population, just to other undergraduates. </p>
<p>My guess is that freshman are more likely to live in dorms and thus more likely to get, for example, meningitis, mono, strep, and all those other things that are spread easily when many people live together in a dorm.</p>
<p>Emeraldkitty - higher rates than the other undergraduates. Freshman are the most susceptible to meningitis because it is their first months in such close quarters. There are also probably a few deaths of pneumonia, etc that are also related to the freshmen being in close quarters for the first time. The meningitis deaths are preventable, the rare others, probably not preventable - just as not all traffic accidents can be prevented.</p>
<p>Also, they don’t tell you how they counted freshman - the total was 24%, which doesn’t seem right if they included lots of state schools with higher drop-out rates after the first year, they should have a higher % of freshman. Also, there are a number of rare cancers tthat tend to strike kids between 15-19, sometimes these kids will start college, and go a year or two before succumbing to their disease, they might always be recorded as frosh, because they had to go part-time.</p>
<p>Its not a very scientific study, but the premise is probably true, the overall death rate is higher in 18-19 year olds than in 21-22 year olds.</p>
<p>The majority of deaths among soldiers in our own Civil War came about from disease–not combat–as young people were mixed outside of their own communities for the first time, and their localized immunities didn’t work. A huge number of these deaths occurred in training camps. Obviously things are better now than they were then, but there is probably still a vestigial validity to that phenomenon. Also, first-years haven’t yet figured out how to take care of themselves, seek medical attention when appropriate, etc.</p>
<p>thats interesting
I knew that deaths in training now- seem to either to from soldiers pushed to a much higher physical level than before- either from sargents who are ignoring normal body endurance restrictions- or weaknesses in circulatory systems which previously haven’t been taxed.
Its always very sad to read about athletes who die suddenly at a young age, hard to know how to prevent it.</p>
<p>My daughter hasn’t taken health yet in school, I am eager to find out exactly what they cover- she acts like a wild animal when sick- I wonder if she will get better at getting help when she needs it- this has motivated me to get my older daughter a better all round health book. SHe has taken first aid many times and has emergency medical books, but she says her alround medical book isn’t helpful</p>
<p>I’d make two points: Certainly the data and anecdotal tragedies detailed in the article should be of concern to all. However, I’d like to see similar data on a non-college cohort before identifying a college setting as being a contributing factor. Thanks to various reporting laws, stats on colleges can be collected with ease; no such easily accessed aggregation of data exists for 18-22 year olds not in college.</p>
<p>There is some evidence that potentially lethal behavior is characteristic of this age group - aren’t accidents the leading cause of death in this cohort? I do recall recent press stories on the lethal threat that young drivers pose to themselves and other drivers, irrespective of whether the driver is in college.</p>
<p>I’d point out one other thing. For years, it was assumed by many that suicide rates on college campuses were extreme. However, recent research including non-college cohorts shows suicide rates in college cohorts to be about half the rate of the non-college cohort.</p>
<p>All I’m saying is that a conclusion that being in a college/university setting is a significant correlate of this behavior is premature.</p>
<p>Certainly there are issues raised by the article that a wise consumer of post-secondary education should be familiar with.</p>
<p>That’s one reason why I think the study is non-scientific. One conclusion probably is true - freshmen are at higher risk, vs upperclassmen. I’m not sure they were trying to imply that college students overall were at higher risk than their agemates, although I think they were trying to imply that colleges and universities should do something about drinking which is involved to some extent in the majority of deaths.</p>
<p>I don’t think it would necessarily be related either
I know that mental illness may start to be exhibited in early 20s late teens, and actually the fact that there is a health clinic on campus, that students often have roommates and RAs in the dorms, may actually be a less stressful lifestyle than someone who is 19 and working full time and living on their own.
The RAs in my daughters dorm were friends, so I even felt comfortable contacting them if I had concerns, I admit though that students don’t necessarily get much better about asking for help, or even realizing they need it, when they are a few years older.</p>
<p>More illness occurs among freshmen for the reasons already given - and b/c for many, it’s their first high-stress situation, with poorer sleeping habits, un-monitored diet, etc., which also contribute.</p>
<p>Increased stress brings forth the mental illness in many situations. Families who choose not to see, who choose to deny and remain in the dark depending on the “reporting” of others.</p>
<p>I think we should give USA Today a lot of credit for trying to compile information about this. Colleges and universities are loath to supply it on their own. It would be useful to have a systematic database of some kind.</p>
<p>There’s a column in the SF Chronicle today about a UC-Davis freshman boy who recently committed suicide. The column says men are 8x more likely to commit suicide than women; the link emeraldkity gave says college boys are 4x more likely to commit suicide than girls.</p>
<p>Women try, men succeed, I think this holds true over most age groups - suicide attempts in women are more common than men, men more often use a gun.</p>
<p>Right - men typically use guns or rope; women are more likely to try pills. The “completion rate” (I think they call it) is much higher with men.</p>
<p>Sadly, some schools have well known equal opportunity places to make suicide leaps (chasms, atriums, tall buildings with access to windows or landings). So if someone is truly committed to it, they may follow that path.</p>