A study conducted by a Harvard University professor and the director of the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in the Department of Global Health has discovered the average life expectancy of some areas of the United States has actually dropped. This process began in the 1980s when the drop was first noticed. The decrease in life expectancy is completely shocking to researchers because the last time such a change occurred was in 1918 during the Spanish flu pandemic.
In addition, the kind of change is completely uncommon in developed nations. Researchers anticipated the life expectancy to increase given the strides that have been made in medicine so they were completely dumbfounded by the results. Researchers found one out of every five women and one of every 25 men are dying at an earlier age or have not shown improvement when compared to 1980. Although the trend is only present in certain areas of the country, southern parts and rural areas, researchers fear it may be representative of an overall trend.
The data was divided by the different counties across the nation. The data shows:
“Beginning in the early 1980s life expectancy in some of the nation’s “worst-off” counties (based on overall health indicators) either stayed the same or declined by 1.3 years for both sexes. For those living in those counties, men on average die about 11 years earlier and women die 7.5 years earlier than people in better-off counties.”
Researchers noticed the trend when a similar study was conducted in the 80s which discovered the gap in the life expectancy between the worst and best off counties in the state was getting wider.
“”It was pretty shocking to us,” Ezzati said. And contrary to what might be expected, he said the observed declines in life expectancy did not seem to correlate with race or income. Ezzati emphasized this wasn’t just a trend affecting poor minorities.”
Although the do not completely understand what is causing the change, they believe it can be attributed to diseases associated with smoking, obesity, and high blood pressure. However, they also mention the change is caused by other factors as well, not just the ones mentioned above. Researchers hope their findings will cause the government to enact legislation aimed at combating this threat.
This was not the surprising considering the growing number of people in the nation who are obese, over-weight, smoke, do drugs, etc. It was just a matter of time before concrete data was discovered that supported the theory. In addition, the growing income gap in the nation leaves many people without insurance and the extra income to cover expenses during sickness and recovery. As a result, many either wait before the see a doctor or avoid it altogether until it is too late. Hopefully something is done to combat this issue. In the meantime, this does give other countries more insults to direct towards the US.
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