Slashdot Mirror
US Life Expectancy Falls Further (cnn.com)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday released data that shows life expectancy fell by one-tenth of a year, to 78.6 years (Warning: source paywalled; alternative source), pushed down by the sharpest annual increase in suicide in nearly a decade and a continued rise in deaths from opioid drugs. "Influenza, pneumonia and diabetes also factored into last year's increase," The Wall Street Journal adds. From the report: Economists and public-health experts consider life expectancy to be an important measure of a nation's prosperity. The 2017 data paint a dark picture of health and well-being in the U.S., reflecting the effects of addiction and despair, particularly among young and middle-aged adults, as well as diseases plaguing an aging population and people with lower access to health care. The U.S. has lost three-tenths of a year in life expectancy since 2014, a stunning reversal for a developed nation, and lags far behind other wealthy nations. Life expectancy is 84.1 years in Japan and 83.7 years in Switzerland, first and second in the most-recent ranking by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The U.S. ranks 29th.
White men and women fared the worst, along with black men, all of whom experienced increases in death rates. Death rates rose in particular for adults ages 25 to 44, and suicide rates are highest among people in the nation's most rural areas. On the other hand, deaths declined for black and Hispanic women, and remained the same for Hispanic men. As drug and suicide mortality has risen, deaths from heart disease, the nation's leading killer, went down only slightly, failing to offset the increases in mortality from other causes and prolonging another worrisome trend.
White men and women fared the worst, along with black men, all of whom experienced increases in death rates. Death rates rose in particular for adults ages 25 to 44, and suicide rates are highest among people in the nation's most rural areas. On the other hand, deaths declined for black and Hispanic women, and remained the same for Hispanic men. As drug and suicide mortality has risen, deaths from heart disease, the nation's leading killer, went down only slightly, failing to offset the increases in mortality from other causes and prolonging another worrisome trend.
Long working hours, stress due to stupid societal expectations, bullying via social media, poor health care unless you have a cush job ... they all have consequences.
The enormous difference between age-adjusted death rate of Whites and Hispanics is surprising.
White males are dying at a 40% higher rate than Hispanics (age adjusted of course.)
This is about the same as the gender gap in death rate, which starts from birth. Males are much more likely to die in cots, or as toddlers in pools.
Is the racial gap across life like that, or appearing in middle age from diet-related disease?
Do the English-speaking children and grandchildren of Hispanic immigrants maintain that advantage if they live a mainstream American lifestyle?
i.e. nature or nurture?
You either live long enough to go bankrupt from the out of control US healthcare system
or you die young without ever having to experience the horrors of how this country treats
its elderly.
Personally, I think I would prefer the latter over the former.
( and I'm closer in age to the latter than the former )
Exactly correct, you should ban your government from using those statistics. The only thing allowed is member of the original American nations, natural born US citizens, immigrant citizen (from where ever), how old they are (responsibilities and protections), their gender (male or female or anything they want to make up, protection) and that is pretty much it. Hey I am olive skin in winter I am white and in summer I am golden brown (well used to be, do slack to go out in the sun that much anymore), so what colour am I, white or brown, technically that was called olive skinned and I still hold to that and the only reason to keep record, would be to keep whitey out of the sun, they burn real bad. So skin colour should not be record except for police identification purposes.
The US government needs to stop tracking anything in bullshit term of race, purely citizenship born or immigrant and if immigrant where did they immigrate from, that is it. Any record of Negro, Hispanic, White et al, should be deleted and banned (except of course olive skinned, that is special and should be kept track of, bwa hah hah).
Obama care compulsory for profit Republican Health Insurance as first proposed by Mitt Romney is shit and the pharmas, hospitals, insurance only attacked it as part of the scam to block universal health care. Don't fucking ask for universal health care, demand it and taxes need to go as high as necessary to pay for it, done and finished.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Is a product of poor education and poor diet. The areas affected suffer both.
Poor genetic health is a factor, with urban communities typically having better genes, but that would be overwhelmed by diet and education.
America's he-man culture and lack of functioning health service (mental health is virtually absent, synthetic opium is handed out like candy by doctors to make up for it) are other major blunders.
And remember this is an average life expectancy, it's different for men and women. Men tend to live shorter lifespans. And it's male lifespans that are falling fastest.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
The middle class is dying. And the bulk of people I've worked for were unhealthy slobs who will die stupidly young.
The air pollution around Portland, OR - home of the middle class, or at least theur books - is replete with heavy metals such as mercury. And restrictions are being lifted. It will get worse.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Do "complex factors" make the USA so very unique?
A series of advanced nations have the same levels of decades of industrialization in and around their city areas.
The same transport, factory products. The US did improve on occupational safety and health. Such a large number of industrial conditions would be easy to track.
The same levels of water treatment. The same ability to design working sewer systems. For many decades.
Food should be of the same quality to average working and middle class populations. Doctors do notice and report conditions resulting from a lack of food.
Back to the question of what a well funded US wide epidemiologist study could find.
What are the "societal and economical problems" that makes some advanced nations able to do "health" care on average for their average populations?
Re "Genetics, lifestyle choices, random chance, environmental factors."
Hows the US populations "genetics" different?
Lifestyle choices? Are other advanced nations making their populations do more sport more often?
What are the "random chance" factors unique to the USA not spread over other advanced nations globally?
Re "environmental factors? Lots of unexpected super fund sites in middle class and working class communities all over the USA nobody has ever noticed?
A US epidemiologist would have found that polluted area and published on that interesting collection of medical conditions.
Advanced nations like the USA can track and gather long term health information related to unexpected health problems in any community.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"