Tuskegee Syphilis Study: Mortality Data and Classified Causes (1932-1972)

SUMMARY

The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis was conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 1932 to 1972, involving 399 Black men with syphilis and 201 without the disease. Participants were told they were being treated for 'bad blood' and were not given informed consent. This 40-year study, which withheld penicillin treatment from syphilitic participants even after it became available as a cure, led to significant changes in research ethics.

While the overall impact of the study on the lives of those involved is documented, a comprehensive, year-by-year breakdown of deaths among all participants, including the control group, and their classified causes is not readily available in the provided sources. Academic studies and historical analyses exist that review the study's findings and the status of participants at various points, but detailed year-by-year mortality data for both groups with specific causes of death remain an open question.

CLAIMS

1. VERIFIEDCONF 1.00

   The Tuskegee Study involved 600 Black men, including 399 with syphilis and 201 without the disease.

   — attributed to: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

   • https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/about/timeline.html
2. VERIFIEDCONF 1.00

   Participants in the Tuskegee Study were not given informed consent and were told they were being treated for 'bad blood'.

   — attributed to: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

   • https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/about/timeline.html
3. VERIFIEDCONF 1.00

   The Tuskegee Study was conducted between 1932 and 1972 by the United States Public Health Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

   — attributed to: Wikipedia and CDC

   • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Syphilis_Study
   • https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/about/index.html
4. VERIFIEDCONF 1.00

   The Tuskegee Study led to drastic changes in standard research practices and the creation of the Belmont Report and the Office for Human Research Protections.

   — attributed to: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and ScienceDirect

   • https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/about/index.html
   • https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/tuskegee-syphilis-experiment
5. CORROBORATEDCONF 0.90

   Academic studies have summarized information and reviewed the status of the original study group, reporting clinical and laboratory findings.

   — attributed to: Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)

   • https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/570911
6. SINGLE-SOURCECONF 0.60

   The decision was made by researchers to continue observation until all the cohort had died, withholding the cure (penicillin) after it became available.

   — attributed to: A Reddit user on r/AskHistorians

   • https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/53cvuu/what_effects_on_the_public_did_the_tuskegee/
7. VERIFIEDCONF 1.00

   Records from the Tuskegee study are now available online through the National Library of Medicine.

   — attributed to: The Washington Post (cited by NCBI NLM)

   • https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/search/research-news/19664/
8. UNVERIFIABLECONF 0.70

   There are academic studies or historical analyses providing a year-by-year breakdown of all deaths among Tuskegee Study participants, including the control group, and their classified causes.

   — attributed to: Investigation Lead

TIMELINE

• 1932The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male begins, involving 600 Black men, 399 with syphilis and 201 without. [src]
• 1940sPenicillin becomes widely available as an effective treatment for syphilis.
• 1963Evaluation of remaining participants in the study. [src]
• 1972The 40-year Untreated Syphilis Study at Tuskegee ends. [src]
• 1972The Tuskegee Study is exposed to the public. [src]

ENTITIES

• ORG U.S. Public Health Service — Conducted the Tuskegee Study
• ORG Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — Conducted the Tuskegee Study
• PLACE Tuskegee, Alabama — Location of the study
• EVENT Belmont Report — Ethical guidelines established as a result of the study
• ORG Office for Human Research Protections — Established as a result of the study

OPEN QUESTIONS — PENDING LEADS

• Are there any specific academic studies or historical analyses that provide a year-by-year breakdown of all deaths among the Tuskegee Study participants (both infected and control groups)?
• Do any existing declassified records or archived documents from the U.S. Public Health Service or CDC contain detailed mortality logs with classified causes of death for Tuskegee Study participants?
• Which academic databases or historical archives are most likely to contain comprehensive mortality data for the Tuskegee Study, beyond the National Library of Medicine's general records?
• Were specific epidemiological analyses conducted post-1972 that focused solely on the differential mortality rates and specific causes of death between the syphilitic and control groups over the study's entire duration?
• Are there any publicly available reports or datasets from the Offices of Human Research Protections or similar ethics bodies that have compiled the requested year-by-year mortality and cause-of-death data for the Tuskegee study?

EVIDENCE — CAPTURED SOURCES

1. [WEB] https://scholar.google.com/ [archived]

   Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. Search across a wide variety of disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions.

2. [WEB] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/search/research-news/19664/ [archived]

   (The Washington Post) Records from notorious Tuskegee syphilis study now available online . Associated research findings from the National Library of Medicine.

3. [WEB] https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/about/timeline.html [archived]

   The study initially involved 600 Black men - 399 with syphilis, 201 who did not have the disease. Participants' informed consent was not collected. Researchers told the men they were being treated for "bad blood," a local term used to describe several ailments, including syphilis…

4. [WEB] https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/about/index.html

   The 40-year Untreated Syphilis Study at Tuskegee ended in 1972 and resulted in drastic changes to standard research practices. Read on to learn about the impact of the study on the lives of those involved.

5. [WEB] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Syphilis_Study [archived]

   The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male[1] (informally referred to as the Tuskegee Experiment or Tuskegee Syphilis Study) was a study conducted between 1932 and 1972 by the United States Public Health Service (PHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Preven…

6. [WEB] https://digirepo.nlm.nih.gov/ext/mm/2934097RX4/PDF/2934097RX4.pdf [archived]

   The Tuskegee Study was one of several investigations that were taking place in the 1930's with the ultimate objective of venereal disease control in the United States. Beginning in 1926, the United States Public Health Service, with the cooperation of other organiza- tions, activ…

7. [WEB] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/570911 [archived]

   This paper summarizes the information obtained in this study—well known as the "Tuskegee Study"—from earlier publications, 1-11 reviews the status of the original study group, and reports the clinical and laboratory findings on those remaining participants who were examined in th…

8. [WEB] https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/tuskegee-syphilis-experiment

   The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment reminds us of the importance of proper ethical practices, especially when dealing with racial minorities. The 40-year Tuskegee Study led to the creation of the Belmont Report and the establishment of the Office for Human Research Protections.

9. [REDDIT] https://www.reddit.com/r/history/comments/w7oz5b/ap_exposes_the_tuskegee_syphilis_study_the_50th/ [archived]

   A series of studies was conducted from 1963 through 1966 at the Willowbrook State School, a New York institution for "mentally defective" children. To gain an understanding of the natural history of infectious hepatitis under controlled circumstances, newly admitted children were…

10. [REDDIT] https://www.reddit.com/r/AcademicQuran/ [archived]

    A forum for the discussion of academic Quranic studies, including questions about the Quran's formation, interpretation, historical context, manuscripts, etc. Topics including pre-Islamic Arabia & late antiquity, Islamic origins and early Islam, hadith studies and more are also d…

11. [REDDIT] https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/kezcdk/hi_rmovies_1002_days_ago_you_helped_us_collect/

    Hi r/movies. 1002 days ago you helped us collect data for an academic paper on character deaths (see comments for original post). It was finally published in a peer-reviewed journal. I'll be here all day trying to answer any [serious] questions you might have.

12. [REDDIT] https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1gbxdu/til_between_1932_and_1972_the_us_government/

    TIL between 1932 and 1972 the US government tricked black citizens into believing they were receiving free healthcare so they could study the natural progression of untreated syphilis.

13. [REDDIT] https://www.reddit.com/r/SNHU/comments/jj87v7/history_200_applied_history_textbook/ [archived]

    The women's movement's focus on issues related to sexual freedom, including reproductive rights, galvanized support among many younger women, but it cost the movement support among many older and more socially conservative women. Tailor this message for an audience consisting of …

14. [REDDIT] https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/53cvuu/what_effects_on_the_public_did_the_tuskegee/ [archived]

    At this point the researchers should have stopped the experiment and given/offered the cure. But no studies had been going on as long as theirs, so the decision was made to continue the observation until all the cohort had died (with-holding the cure). This happened for years, wi…

15. [REDDIT] https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/4cmi6t/im_working_on_a_chapter_for_an_upcoming_academic/

    I'm working on a chapter for an upcoming academic collection on The Walking Dead, these are my color coded compendiums. (Pink=sex or sexuality; Blue=major character deaths; yellow/green=important Michonne moments)

16. [REDDIT] https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/cfls2l/til_about_the_tuskegee_syphilis_experiment/ [archived]

    It was actually a study conducted by Tuskegee University, a historically black college, in partnership with the US Public Health Service. The study became ethically ducked after 1945ish when penicillin started being used to treat and cure syphilis and none of these study particip…

CROSS-REFERENCE

• → SHARES-EVENT Tuskegee Syphilis Study: Government Medical Experimentation and 1972 Exposure — Both dossiers concern the same U.S. Public Health Service study on untreated syphilis in Tuskegee, Alabama.