Bay State News

There were 60 deaths with chronic lower respiratory disease listed as the underlying cause reported in Massachusetts during the week ending October 23, a 62.2 percent increase over the previous week, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the week ending October 23, there were 1,221 deaths in the state. 18.9 percent of deaths were caused by heart disease, 18.4 percent were from cancer and 11.7 percent were from COVID-19. Additionally, 10.3 percent of deaths were from Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

Studies show doctors and medical examiners may underreport Alzheimer's disease and dementia-related conditions as the underlying cause of death on death certificates, according to the National Institute on Aging.

Once infected, older adults with dementia are likely to develop a more severe and dangerous illness. The diseases which make an older adult more vulnerable to COVID-19 are age-associated chronic conditions, according to the Bright Focus Foundation.

Cause of Death	Number of Deaths 2021-10-23	Number of Deaths 2021-10-16
Heart disease	231	217
Malignant neoplasms (cancerous tumor)	225	252
COVID-19 (multiple cause)	77	65
COVID-19 (underlying cause)	66	58
Chronic lower respiratory diseases	60	37
Cerebrovascular diseases	54	47
Alzheimer's disease	27	33
Diabetes mellitus	26	19
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis	22	24
Influenza and pneumonia	15	25

Cause of Death	Number of Deaths 2021-10-23	Number of Deaths 2021-10-16
Alzheimer disease and dementia	126	152