https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/12/04/depths-of-despair-drive-third-consecutive-drop-in-us-life-expectancy
Depths of despair' drive third consecutive drop in U.S. life expectancy, Minnesota Public Radio News, 12/4/19
That dip is slight, at just a tenth of a year. But Hallberg said it’s statistically significant — and alarming, because it’s driven by an increase in preventable deaths among 25-to 65-year-olds in New England and the Ohio Valley.
“There are three main conditions, this triad, and sadly, they're referred to as ‘depths of despair,’” Hallberg said. “They are drug overdoses, suicides and alcohol-related disease.”
This one from November 2018, a year and a quarter ago --
https://apnews.com/de57909c5bcc4162b122948539ed9c6a
Suicide, at 50-year peak, pushes down US life expectancy, AP, 11/29/18
The suicide death rate last year was the highest it’s been in at least 50 years, according to U.S. government records. There were more than 47,000 suicides, up from a little under 45,000 the year before. The suicide rate was 14 deaths per 100,000 people. That’s the highest since at least 1975.
For decades, U.S. life expectancy was on the upswing, rising a few months nearly every year. Now it’s trending the other way: It fell in 2015, stayed level in 2016, and declined again last year, the CDC said.
An underlying factor is that the death rate for heart disease — the nation’s No. 1 killer — has stopped falling. In years past, declines in heart disease deaths were enough to offset increases in some other kinds of death, but no longer, Anderson said.
Drug overdose deaths also continued to climb, surpassing 70,000 last year ... The death rate rose 10 percent from the previous year, smaller than the 21 percent jump seen between 2016 and 2017.
A baby born last year in the U.S. is expected to live about 78 years and 7 months, on average. An American born in 2015 or 2016 was expected to live about a month longer, and one born in 2014 about two months longer than that.
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