U.S. life expectancy declines for the first time since 1993

Arcade22

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Arcade22
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For the first time in more than two decades, life expectancy for Americans declined last year — a troubling development linked to a panoply of worsening health problems in the United States.

Rising fatalities from heart disease and stroke, diabetes, drug overdoses, accidents and other conditions caused the lower life expectancy revealed in a report released Thursday by the National Center for Health Statistics. In all, death rates rose for eight of the top 10 leading causes of death.

“I think we should be very concerned,” said Princeton economist Anne Case, who called for thorough research on the increase in deaths from heart disease, the No. 1 killer in the United States. “This is singular. This doesn’t happen.”

...

Several experts pointed out that other Western nations are not seeing similar rises in mortality, suggesting an urgency to determine what is unique about health, health care and socioeconomic conditions in the United States.

“Mortality rates in middle age have totally flat*lined in the U.S. for people in their 30s and 40s and 50s, or have been increasing,” Case said. “What we really need to do is find out why we have stopped making progress against heart disease. And I don’t have the answer to that.”

Meara noted that more people need better health care but that “the health-care system is only a part of health.” Income inequality, nutrition differences and lingering unemployment all need to be addressed, she said.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...cdc7b4-bc93-11e6-91ee-1adddfe36cbe_story.html

Don't worry. There's no need for Americans to take any advice from those that manage better than them or embrace their practices. That would imply that America has something to learn from others even-though we know that America is 1#.

Now that they have elected Trump he'll find an all-american solution that's better than all other countries in the world and just like back in them good old days the world will be envious of Americans prosperity. The age in which other developed countries derided the incapable Americans is finally over!
 
Okay, but can we look at the important stat? What's the life expectancy for the wealthiest 5%?
 
Seventy-eight years seems OK to me. What do the authors suggest the right life expectancy should be?
 
marplots said:
Seventy-eight years seems OK to me. What do the authors suggest the right life expectancy should be?
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By proclamation, the USA is number one - so, at the top of the list is where it should be.

How about just better than Cuba's?
 
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We have an aging baby boom population swell moving through the demographics and statistics on their way to the grave.

I'm sure this has nothing to with any changes in statistical lifespan of a specific age bracket, because the news never talks about it.
 
marplots said:
Seventy-eight years seems OK to me. What do the authors suggest the right life expectancy should be?
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Lowish hundreds - and there used to be (I have something else that is more important, just passing by) in some other parts of the world reasonable numbers who did exactly that.
 
But noope, it isn't the boomers dying , it's the youngsters. And they are dying a month earlier, 36 days? Crack babies can account for that, one dead baby removes 78 years from the data, huge effect on the avg.

But of bigger import is that the old folks are not extending either. Looks to me that we have plateaued on our myth of cholesterol and fats, and lowering of smoking. And that all the medical breakthroughs in cancer fighting don't mean much on the average either.
 
fuelair said:
Lowish hundreds - and there used to be (I have something else that is more important, just passing by) in some other parts of the world reasonable numbers who did exactly that.
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IUIRC, it's longest in the smallest, richest retirement countries. As upthread, the 1%ers.

And in other discussions, one thing that makes America different is our ethnic mix.
 
fuelair said:
Lowish hundreds - and there used to be (I have something else that is more important, just passing by) in some other parts of the world reasonable numbers who did exactly that.
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That sounds high to me.

Let's say someone is 75 now. That means they were 15, sixty years ago. Their values and norms were set in 1956. The cold war is on. Nikita Kruschev becomes the First Secretary of the USSR and denounces Stalin. Elvis Presley has his first hit record. The big civil rights battles, the rise of feminism, Vietnam, and a hundred other significant changes to the landscape haven't happened yet.

By 2001, our hypothetical oldster has seen their world disappear as it is remade. They probably know more dead people than living.

78 is plenty old. A good lifespan. Eighteen years more than the Biblical "three score and ten."
 
It can't be true!

The US consumes 80% of the worlds opioids, Americans must be painless!
The US consumes twice as much money per capita as the Scandinavian countries.... Americans must be healthier than anybody!




Or maybe we just see the result of a system designed to keep people sick and doctors, lawyers and junk food providers wealthy?
 
Peter i said:
It can't be true!

The US consumes 80% of the worlds opioids, Americans must be painless!
The US consumes twice as much money per capita as the Scandinavian countries.... Americans must be healthier than anybody!

Or maybe we just see the result of a system designed to keep people sick and doctors, lawyers and junk food providers wealthy?
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I guess it depends on if those categories live longer or die when the rest of us do.
 
casebro said:
But noope, it isn't the boomers dying , it's the youngsters. And they are dying a month earlier, 36 days? Crack babies can account for that, one dead baby removes 78 years from the data, huge effect on the avg.

But of bigger import is that the old folks are not extending either. Looks to me that we have plateaued on our myth of cholesterol and fats, and lowering of smoking. And that all the medical breakthroughs in cancer fighting don't mean much on the average either.
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Crack babies?

More likely due to a rash of "hold my beer and watch this" escapades.
 
Jrrarglblarg said:
We have an aging baby boom population swell moving through the demographics and statistics on their way to the grave.

I'm sure this has nothing to with any changes in statistical lifespan of a specific age bracket, because the news never talks about it.
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Your attempt to use reason is noted, sir, but it is also puzzling. What makes you think anyone is interested in reason? :confused: ISF = Interminable **** Fest

(for those not familiar with the term: interminable ~ seemingly without end; endless)
 
casebro said:
Really? Post WWII baby booms in countries that were devastated by the war?
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Not all countries were "devastated by the war" and even of those that were invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany and/or the Soviet Union some managed to come out relatively unscathed. Many of those also experienced a post-war baby boom. In some cases, such as in Germany, it was delayed due to the fact that plenty of German men were held as POW's in the soviet union and elsewhere for up to a decade after the war had ended.

Again the typical excuses for Americans failures is that America is special little snowflake that cannot be compared to any other country on earth so no o *********** ridiculous.
 
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Arcade22 said:
Not all countries were "devastated by the war" and even of those that were invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany and/or the Soviet Union some managed to come out relatively unscathed. Many of those also experienced a post-war baby boom. In some cases, such as in Germany, it was delayed due to the fact that plenty of German men were held as POW's in the soviet union and elsewhere for up to a decade after the war had ended.

Again the typical excuses for Americans failures is that America is special little snowflake that cannot be compared to any other country on earth so no o *********** ridiculous.
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I'm not sure what in this thread motivated this defensive gesture attack. Also not sure anyone has established yet exactly where a 0.1% down blip actually comes from statistically and represents on the ground, for you to suggest this is counts as "Americans failures" that we need to defend or explain.

This story gets filed in my head under "lies, damned lies and statistics."
 
Darth Rotor said:
Your attempt to use reason is noted, sir, but it is also puzzling. What makes you think anyone is interested in reason? :confused: ISF = Interminable **** Fest

(for those not familiar with the term: interminable ~ seemingly without end; endless)
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does not, will not and/or cannot terminate.................
 
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