Most Surprising Cause of Death in Maryland, Why It Matters

Dying of cancer, heart attack or stroke, while sad, is fairly common.

But dying from assault? Well, that's unexpected, but it happens more frequently in Maryland than many other states.

According to HealthGrove, a medical news site, dying from assault is over-indexed in Maryland. That means it is significantly more common here than the rest of the country.

Each year, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention compiles a list of deaths and related conditions to find the leading causes of death. Using the data from 2014, HealthGrove was able to suss out the cause of death that was over-indexed for each state.

For Maryland, that's assault. There are 6.7 deaths per 100,000 in the state from assault, compared to 3.2 deaths per 100,000 for the country.

Other states where assault over-indexed are mostly in the Southeast, with a few exceptions: Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

This is important, HealthGrove says, because looking only at the national trend, important regional fluctuations can be missed -- and that can have deadly consequences.

Here are some of the trends at the state level the site found. In the mountain region states, self-harm, or suicide, was the most over-indexed. As for the West Coast, it's hepatitis.

While there may be underlying causes contributing to these increased regional variances, such as the connection between thin air and depression that might explain the trend of self-harm in the mountain states, there isn’t enough data to pinpoint causes. But the number might help those wondering how and where to allocate specific types of aid, the CDC says.