Mortality preventable by medical intervention: ethnic and regional differences in Texas.

An examination of mortality from 12 causes of death was tabulated for the state of Texas for residents in the Lower Rio Grande Valley; for residents of border counties; for residents of Dallas, Harris, and Tarrant counties, along with residents of east Texas from 1980 to 1989. The ninth revised edition of the International Classification of Diseases was used to categorize causes of mortality. The mortality data were obtained from mortality data tapes obtained from the Texas Department of Health and archived at the University of Texas School of Public Health. From 1980 to 1989, an average of 1543 deaths per year was attributed to these 12 selected causes in Texas. Thirty-two percent of deaths were due to hypertensive heart disease, 30% to pneumonia and bronchitis, 11% to cervical cancer, and 6% to rheumatic fever. Pneumonia and bronchitis were the leading causes of death among those aged 15 to 44 years.