The US is Falling Behind in Life Expectancy

[LongTomH]

Why is life expectancy in the United States growing more slowly than other countries?

There are a lot of factors that could be slowing down life expectancy in the United States. Tobacco, obesity, and dietary risk factors are all part of the story. After the mid-1990s, obesity rates quickly increased in the United States, while countries like Canada and Germany saw a more gradual rise in obesity. By 2013, the US had much higher rates of obesity than Germany. In terms of tobacco, Canada has made faster progress in reducing the number of people who smoke than we have in the United States. The U.S. also has less of a primary health care strategy than in other high-income countries, such as Australia. Australia used to have lower life expectancy than the U.S. The country has really invested in primary care, and it has improved so significantly in life expectancy that Australia has surpassed the U.S. in longevity. We also have to remember that the United States is a very big country with some very large disparities in economic opportunity, education, access to health care, and other dynamics. People in places like Marin County in California have a life expectancy of 85 years, among the highest in the world. But then across the country, men living in McDowell, West Virginia can expect to live to 64 years, which is the same as Pakistan. As long as you have that kind of discrepancy in survival within the same country, it’s going to be challenging to see faster progress.

How great is the discrepancy in life expectancy between different parts of the country?

This discrepancy is fairly substantial, especially when you look at what’s happening for American women. Between 1985 and 2010, hundreds of counties saw no significant change or actual declines in female life expectancy. This finding was most evident in the South and Midwest, with a number of counties in Georgia, Kentucky, and Oklahoma registering shorter life expectancies for women in 2010 than in 1985. During this time period, 95% of U.S. counties saw improvements for male expectancy; only 55% of counties experienced the same for women.

What are some of the possible reasons for the slowing of longevity in certain parts of in the United States?

When you’re looking at risk factors for disease and injury in the U.S., dietary risks, such as eating too little fruit, nuts, and seeds and too much salt, are the number one cause. That’s followed by smoking, high body mass index, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, insufficient exercise, and alcohol use. Hypertension is a big missed opportunity in the U.S. If we had a primary health care system that was able to better identify hypertension, recommend appropriate treatments, and control the risks, we would make a huge dent in death and disability from high blood pressure. Longevity is likely to vary a lot based on where you are in the U.S. In some places, such as a number of counties in Montana and Idaho, rates of daily smoking haven’t changed much since the 1990s – which is the complete opposite of what you see nationwide. The proportion of women who are overweight or obese has increased much faster than the national average for many counties in Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Missouri. These kinds of health disparities, coupled with large inequalities in education, rates of poverty, and access to quality healthcare, can make it very challenging to improve life expectancy.

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Is there reason to believe that the longevity gap worldwide will narrow? How can we make it so that people in countries the world over can expect to live equally long lives?

On the current trajectory, we have to expect that the health disparities in the U.S. are going to widen, but there is the potential to change that course. We have made incredible advances in medicine, prevention efforts, and educational attainment, among other things. But the best science and technology in the world can’t offset persistent disparities in access to health services, inadequate funding of public health programs, or lax policies related to health risks. The belief that everyone deserves to live a long, healthy life underlies all the work I do. In my lifetime, I’d love to see people in Haiti live as long as someone in Japan. Achieving greater equality in global life expectancy would be extremely challenging and it would take a lot of money, political will, and time. But if the financial and political commitment to do so can intersect with medical advances and public health initiatives, we might just see a world with better health and longer lives.

Read the rest at:
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/prudential_living_longer_project/2014/09/the_u_s_is_falling_behind_in_life_expectancy.html#!/

[bemildred]

1. This is what happens when you crap on the social safety net. nt

[yurbud]

3. yep--thanks Republicans and your DLC accomplices!

[geek tragedy]

4. And when those who don't use it work themselves to death for fear

of needing to use it.

[blkmusclmachine]

2. Slip sliding away.

[LiberalElite]

5. Great! If we can't expect to live long -

then we won't need Social Security!