Top 10 Causes of Premature Death

As part of our mission, advancing research into causes of premature death and disability in Los Angeles is a priority for the CTSI. The research studies reported in the below table are representative of CTSI-supported team science that spans the translational spectrum and integrates children, older adults and populations experiencing health disparities. Our collaborations with community partners have had a direct impact on health care.

Leading Causes of Premature Death in Los Angeles County, 2017.
Rank	Cause of Death	#Extramural	Total Amount	#Pubs in Area	Examples of CTSI-supported Outcomes
1	Heart disease	59	$105M	530	A cluster-randomized trial of blood-pressure reduction in black barbershops, NEJM
2	Unintentional drug overdose	15	$28M	7	Physician prescribing of opioids to patients at increased risk of overdose from benzodiazepine use, JAMA Psychiatry
3	Suicide	0	0	11	At-school substance use as a marker for serious health risks, Acad Pediatrics
4	Motor vehicle crash	0	0	2	Traumatic brain injury related hospitalization and mortality in California, BioMed Research Intl
5	Homicide	2	$4M	13	Examination of the short-and long-term impact of school shootings, DOJ Award 2015-VF-GX-K113
6	Liver disease/cirrhosis	8	$15M	63	Genome-wide associations related to hepatic histology in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in Hispanic boys, J Pediatrics
7	Diabetes	21	$39M	171	Implementation and evaluation of a large-scale teleretinal diabetic retinopathy screening program in the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, JAMA Int Med
8	Stroke	4	$16M	85	SIRRACT: An international randomized clinical trial of activity feedback during inpatient stroke rehabilitation enabled by wireless sensing, Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair
9	Lung cancer	50	$75M	59	In vivo imaging of mitochondrial membrane potential in non-small-cell lung cancer, Nature
10	Breast cancer	23	$25M	86	Modulates cancer cell pyruvate export and growth of tumors that co-express MCT1 and MCT4, Cell Reports