May 4, 2026 05:43 PM
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1126420
INTRO: It took the better part of a century for maternal mortality to be recognized, forgotten and finally recognized again as an urgent public health crisis in the United States. In contrast, research shows fathers — particularly men in their 20s through early 40s — die disproportionately from preventable causes such as suicide, overdose, homicide and accidental injury. Yet paternal mortality is rarely examined in connection to the transition to parenthood.
Northwestern University scientists are trying to change that.
A new Northwestern study examined all 130,267 babies born in Georgia in 2017 and tracked whether their fathers died at any point during the following five years, through 2022. Of those fathers who died within five years (796), 60% of the deaths were preventable, which the study authors call a “huge, missed opportunity.” These deaths resulted from homicide (143), accidental injury (142), suicide (102) or overdose (93), while 296 fathers died of natural causes.
The study was published May 4 in JAMA Pediatrics.
While maternal mortality review committees focus specifically and in depth on deaths of mothers in the first year of a child’s life, this is, to the researchers’ knowledge, the first study published in a major medical journal to examine paternal mortality in the years following a child’s birth.
“Our data show that fathers die frequently in the first years of their child’s life, and we have no systems in place to understand how we might prevent it,” said corresponding author Dr. Craig Garfield, professor of pediatrics and medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “That’s a huge blind spot.”
The findings echo what maternal mortality research has long shown: Deaths around the transition to parenthood are shaped less by biology than by social vulnerability, and many are preventable — even as paternal deaths remain largely uncounted and unaddressed. Prior research has shown that paternal involvement is linked to better child and family health outcomes, while paternal absence is associated with a range of adverse outcomes for children... (MORE - no ads)
INTRO: It took the better part of a century for maternal mortality to be recognized, forgotten and finally recognized again as an urgent public health crisis in the United States. In contrast, research shows fathers — particularly men in their 20s through early 40s — die disproportionately from preventable causes such as suicide, overdose, homicide and accidental injury. Yet paternal mortality is rarely examined in connection to the transition to parenthood.
Northwestern University scientists are trying to change that.
A new Northwestern study examined all 130,267 babies born in Georgia in 2017 and tracked whether their fathers died at any point during the following five years, through 2022. Of those fathers who died within five years (796), 60% of the deaths were preventable, which the study authors call a “huge, missed opportunity.” These deaths resulted from homicide (143), accidental injury (142), suicide (102) or overdose (93), while 296 fathers died of natural causes.
The study was published May 4 in JAMA Pediatrics.
While maternal mortality review committees focus specifically and in depth on deaths of mothers in the first year of a child’s life, this is, to the researchers’ knowledge, the first study published in a major medical journal to examine paternal mortality in the years following a child’s birth.
“Our data show that fathers die frequently in the first years of their child’s life, and we have no systems in place to understand how we might prevent it,” said corresponding author Dr. Craig Garfield, professor of pediatrics and medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “That’s a huge blind spot.”
The findings echo what maternal mortality research has long shown: Deaths around the transition to parenthood are shaped less by biology than by social vulnerability, and many are preventable — even as paternal deaths remain largely uncounted and unaddressed. Prior research has shown that paternal involvement is linked to better child and family health outcomes, while paternal absence is associated with a range of adverse outcomes for children... (MORE - no ads)