Scientists Identify the Main Cause of Death for Men Under 39 0 90

This conclusion was reached by an international group of researchers who studied data from 204 countries as part of the Global Burden of Disease project from 1990 to 2023.

The article was published in The Lancet Public Health, and one of its authors is Professor Vasily Vlasov.

Over the past 33 years, the situation on the roads has improved globally: the number of road injuries has decreased by 38.3%, and fatalities from them have fallen by 32.3%. However, absolute figures still raise concerns: in 2023 alone, traffic accidents claimed the lives of approximately 1.34 million people and resulted in more than 50 million injuries. For men aged 20–24, accidents accounted for about 20.7% of all deaths — approximately 98,000 cases annually.

"In the long term, road safety is indeed improving, but very unevenly," emphasizes Vasily Vlasov. "The consequences of traffic accidents are influenced by road conditions, vehicle safety, adherence to rules, and how quickly the injured receive medical assistance."

Several countries are currently actively implementing Vision Zero and Safe System approaches. Their main idea is that the human factor on the road cannot be eliminated, so the entire system must be organized in such a way that even a mistake does not lead to a fatal outcome.

However, the overall positive trend does not mean improvement in every single country. Over the past ten years, the mortality rate from traffic accidents has significantly increased in six countries: by 13.2% in the USA and by 48.5% in Ghana. As the authors note, the outcome is determined by how consistently authorities implement a full set of safety measures. The key task at this stage is to make effective practices accessible to those regions where the risk of dying in an accident remains the highest.

Road traffic injuries have long been considered one of the leading causes of death among young people worldwide, and the male population is particularly vulnerable. Every year, tens of millions of people are injured, many of which lead to disabilities. The death of young men also harms the economy — society loses individuals in the most active working age. That is why road safety is seen not only as a transportation issue but also as a serious public health problem.